Last night I was solving day before yesterday's crossword (can't wait for a day to see the solution!) and figured out a 7 letter uber cool "across" word. The next 60 minutes were spent trying to force fit a whole bunch of "down" clues to the 7 letters I had already put in there.
Frustrated, I picked up yesterday's newspaper (I was solving day before yesterday's crossword, remember?) to glance through the solution, only to realize how completely wrong I was with my uber cool word.
It just reminded me how often we do this in software. Get one big module/component of the entire solution working and try to force fit all the other pieces around it. Gleefully ignoring the fact that the central piece, though ostensibly correct, may be the culprit holding up the entire process.
Thus, I coin a new term "Crossword-Ware". You heard it here, first.
Very well said!! As a software professional with a crossward-ware experience of a year and a half, I can safely say that yeah, this is how we build our software... except that in a normal crossword, we can get to know our mistake in the next day's newspaper!! In case of the software crossword, it could take weeks, months, or even years!! :-D
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