Famous Examples
Netscape's project to improve HTML layout in Navigator 4 has been cited as an example of a failed rewrite. The new layout engine (Gecko) had developed independently from Navigator and did not integrate readily with Navigator's code; hence Navigator itself was rewritten around the new engine, breaking many existing features and delaying release by several months. Meanwhile Microsoft focused on incremental improvements to Internet Explorer and did not face the same obstacles. Ironically, Navigator itself was a successful cleanroom rewrite of NCSA Mosaic overseen by that program's developers. See Browser wars.
The Linux kernel has also been described as a successful rewrite (albeit to very different specifications) starting from Minix.
Read more about this topic: Rewrite (programming)
Famous quotes containing the words famous and/or examples:
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)