This paper is 50+ years old and yet programmers are still making the same mistake of defining modules based on a flowchart, instead of modules that hide design decisions. I think that shows the youth (and perhaps lack of foundational training) of software engineering as a field.
But also the progress of the last 50 years: the KWIC index went from “a small system [that] could be produced by a good programmer within a week or two” to a tiny system that can be written in a couple lines using the standard library of Java (as I once saw a demo of).
Also: I recently wrote a blog post related to this paper and all of the initial test readers told me they had no idea what a KWIC index was and it needed more explanation. Instant full-text search really changes things.
But also the progress of the last 50 years: the KWIC index went from “a small system [that] could be produced by a good programmer within a week or two” to a tiny system that can be written in a couple lines using the standard library of Java (as I once saw a demo of).
Also: I recently wrote a blog post related to this paper and all of the initial test readers told me they had no idea what a KWIC index was and it needed more explanation. Instant full-text search really changes things.