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Anonymous a941d0e91ddb8cb5b3e3d7a92c8cc535 started this discussion 2 months (2008-10-13 01:10:34 UTC) ago:
I would think that a Web browser is among the most complicated out there. And by that, I mean a real Web browser and not just a graphical shell wrapped around a pre-existing rendering engine.
Not only does it have to know what to do with CSS, which is insanely complicated on its own, but you also have to guess what broken code means since over 99.99% of all Web sites don't validate. The absurdly difficult task of trying to make sense of all those broken pages boggles my mind. In fact, I wouldn't even try making a Web browser that supports CSS (which is a must) even if it only had to support 100% valid pages…
And then we have the whole ECMAScript implementation…
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Anonymous 5e9b3102ae2ca2c1575f10307814b661 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 01:21:49 UTC) ago, 11 minutes later (#69,114):
Video editing software… which has functions for special effects and way too many various tools, effects and filters
It's hard enough writing the code for 1 effect, but hundreds? plus thinking about optimizing the performance of the software on any hardware… it's madness
Anonymous fa099d883828a42ad5daf69fc8f4b6a0 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 02:00:12 UTC) ago, 38 minutes later (#69,124):
I would say an OS itself, as it has to run all sorts of software, be secure, have I/O to untold thousands of devices and utilities. These days, how do you even start?
And that's just the basics without having to make it usable :)
Anonymous 5e9b3102ae2ca2c1575f10307814b661 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 02:10:49 UTC) ago, 11 minutes later (#69,127):
@69,124You definitely win… nothing can be as big as an OS.
Anonymous 351358c7096ab8eddc24cc371c502604 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 02:21:19 UTC) ago, 11 minutes later (#69,135):
The OS is not complicated and everything it does is rather straight forward and not that much has fundamentally changed over the decades. I'd have to say compression algorithms, both lossy and lossless (special application, video/audio for example). It's not hard to compress or uncompress something,
but optimizing that process for best results is incredibly hard. In fact it has taken decades to develop modern day video compression algorithms.
Anonymous f302e83139907c13083428ff3e63043b replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 03:12:29 UTC) ago, 51 minutes later (#69,143):
Definitely an OS would be the hardest, I got commissioned a few thousand to write a video editing program and it really isn't that hard, just write a scripting engine in for the effects, and then write the effects in that script.
Anonymous bef679234bbc4c8fbbd4d59ae8567dfd replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 15:20:55 UTC) ago, 12 hours later (#69,276):
Make a program that accurately, universally detects whether or not a program will go into an infinite loop.
Alternatively, try this problem:
A Tile Set
You are currently designing tiles with abstract patterns based loosely on the idea of dominos. The tiles will all be square but divided across the diagonals into 4, with possibly different colours in each quarter. The domino part of your design idea is that when the tiles are laid, all 4 sides' colours must match those on adjacent tiles. Each tile also has a particular orientation - one edge of each tile is designated to always go at the top. It's a bit like a jigsaw really - in fact you can buy similar puzzles with lots of identically shaped tiles where you have to match all the pictures.
You are designing a whole series of tile sets based on this idea. Each tile set will have a particular collection of tiles that are then laid in a customer's room following the domino rule. You are happy to get any number of tiles of each kind made, but new tile patterns cannot be added.
Here is the rub though - you need to know that each tile set you come up with will work for any rectangular room, whatever its size without breaking the domino rule of colours matching on all 4 sides. You don't want to advertize designs unless they work anywhere…bad for business to have to say "No you cant use that design for your house!".
Anonymous 8d5e3c40d85d8face9ee7698b74046e5 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 18:09:20 UTC) ago, 3 hours later (#69,310):
How do you define 'complicated'? The largest codebases in the world are operating systems, but like an anon stated above, they're fundamentally quite simple.
Can we perhaps substitute 'complicated' for 'complex'? Software and algorithm complexity can be readily measured, and probably the most complex problem for conventional computers at the moment would be a program to solve if P=NP.
Interestingly, if you measure 'complicatedness' as how many parts each depending on each other, then software is the most complicated structures built by man - a teenager can write a program much more complicated than, say, the Eiffel Tower, and he can do it because a whole lot less is depending on it being perfect. I find it to be really cool that computers can allow common people to control structures of a previously unheard of level of complexity without fear of consequence.
Anonymous aa3af88d10e3065afb060bbf903408cc replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 18:55:33 UTC) ago, 46 minutes later (#69,327):
The most complicated thing I can write is batch/shell scrips. Don't know if that even counts as software
Anonymous a941d0e91ddb8cb5b3e3d7a92c8cc535 (OP) replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 18:58:55 UTC) ago, 3 minutes later (#69,329):
@69,327I meant "you" as in
anyone.
Anonymous 2e1c90ff8c31ee5fbb6d2ebab200b1c3 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 21:38:01 UTC) ago, 3 hours later (#69,375):
An A.I. with the same functionality as the Human mind.
Anonymous a941d0e91ddb8cb5b3e3d7a92c8cc535 (OP) replied with this 2 months (2008-10-13 23:52:56 UTC) ago, 2 hours later (#69,443):
@69,375OK… you also misunderstood what I meant. :-/
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