Chapter 13-14

   Brooks starts the chapter talking about the roles of exemplars.  He mentions many designs are not all-new but rather based around old designs and made better. The next page talks about computer designers and how professionals have a wider range of exemplars than amateur designers. In order to study rationales of exemplars, one must study the technical papers and books about products, not just the basic manual.  Then Brooks talks about the evolution from first-gen computers to third-gen computers.  Then came virtual memory, the minicomputer, and the microcomputer. Brooks next writes about how authors can improve exemplars and write about them.  This practice takes careful criticism and in depth analysis.  Then Brooks talks about how designers must not be lazy but must have pride and originality in order to really create new exemplars.

     Brooks begins chapter 14 by talking about mistakes and how professional mistakes have much dire consequences than amateur mistakes, i.e. bridge collapses. The he cites JCL as the worst computer language ever created and used by IBM's operating systems.  He goes further into what JCL is and how its flawed.  He comments on the flawed complier and necessary information to knowJCL is vast and no one really knows how to use it. He mentions there are too few verbs, almost no branching, no iteration, and no clean subroutines. Brooks then talks about how JCL became into existence and why its flaws were overlooked. Finally he concludes with the lessons learned: Study failure more closely that success, don't be overconfident with success, and always consider assumptions and environments of designs.