Book 8 - Hardware and Software
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Thus spake the master programmer:

``Without the wind, the grass does not move. Without
software, hardware is useless.''



8.1

A novice asked the master: ``I perceive that one computer
company is much larger than all others. It towers above its
competition like a giant among dwarfs. Any one of its
divisions could comprise an entire business. Why is this
so?''

The master replied, ``Why do you ask such foolish questions?
That company is large because it is large. If it only made
hardware, nobody would buy it. If it only made software,
nobody would use it. If it only maintained systems, people
would treat it like a servant. But because it combines all
of these things, people think it one of the gods! By not
seeking to strive, it conquers without effort.''



8.2

A master programmer passed a novice programmer one day. The
master noted the novice's preoccupation with a hand-held
computer game. ``Excuse me,'' he said, ``may I examine it?''

The novice bolted to attention and handed the device to the
master. ``I see that the device claims to have three levels
of play: Easy, Medium, and Hard,'' said the master. ``Yet
every such device has another level of play, where the
device seeks not to conquer the human, nor to be conquered
by the human.''

``Pray, great master,'' implored the novice, ``how does one
find this mysterious setting?''

The master dropped the device to the ground and crushed it
underfoot. And suddenly the novice was enlightened.



8.3

There was once a programmer who worked upon microprocessors.
``Look at how well off I am here,'' he said to a mainframe
programmer who came to visit, ``I have my own operating
system and file storage device. I do not have to share my
resources with anyone. The software is self- consistent and
easy-to-use. Why do you not quit your present job and join
me here?''

The mainframe programmer then began to describe his system
to his friend, saying ``The mainframe sits like an ancient
sage meditating in the midst of the data center. Its disk
drives lie end-to-end like a great ocean of machinery.  The
software is as multifaceted as a diamond, and as convoluted
as a primeval jungle. The programs, each unique, move
through the system like a swift-flowing river. That is why I
am happy where I am.''

The microcomputer programmer, upon hearing this, fell
silent. But the two programmers remained friends until the
end of their days.



8.4

Hardware met Software on the road to Changtse. Software
said: ``You are Yin and I am Yang. If we travel together we
will become famous and earn vast sums of money.'' And so the
set forth together, thinking to conquer the world.

Presently they met Firmware, who was dressed in tattered
rags and hobbled along propped on a thorny stick. Firmware
said to them: ``The Tao lies beyond Yin and Yang. It is
silent and still as a pool of water. It does not seek fame,
therefore nobody knows its presence. It does not seek
fortune, for it is complete within itself. It exists beyond
space and time.''

Software and Hardware, ashamed, returned to their homes.