I got some more time today to mess with the Microsoft Access application we’ve been having trouble with.  I installed Windows 95 OSR1 on a test box and confirmed that the application indeed fails.  Then I installed the Office 97 Developer Edition Tools so I could debug and fix the problem.  Of course, installing the ODE tools puts new versions of some DLLs on the system so that now the program works.  Gads, what a mess.  I need to go through the setup building process in order to build an installation package so that I can deploy the application to my users.  Worse, installing my application may make other applications on the user’s system unusable.

In the January 2000 issue of Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Jeff Duntemann said:

The worst idea ever to arise in the history of computing is shared code libraries, which are absurd in a time of cheap 30-GB hard drives. Most of the instability of the Windows platforms is due to DLL conflicts. One app, one block of code. 

I agree wholeheartedly.

The quote is from this article sidebar: The Most Significant Event in the Last 25 Years of Computing:  Comments from DDJ Luminaries.