The story of two bridges

Two elderly engineers once talked about their lives and, of course, bragged to each other about their best projects. The first engineer spoke about how he once designed and built one of the greatest bridges that ever existed.

“We built it through a gorge at the bottom of which a river flowed,” he told his friend. “It was wide and deep. We spent two years alone studying the relief, the choice of architecture and materials. We hired the best engineers and designed this bridge, which took another five years. We have entered into an agreement with the largest construction company for the manufacture of supports, structures and the construction of roads connecting the future bridge with nearby highways. Dozens of people died while building a bridge. Our bridge was multi-level - trains could go under the main road, and we also had separate tracks for cyclists. This bridge represents a significant part of my life. ”

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The second engineer listened carefully to the story, thought for a moment and spoke. “One evening, my friend and I got pretty drunk with vodka and threw the rope through one gorge. Just a rope, tied it to two trees - here and there. On each side of the gorge was a village. Having noticed our rope, the residents thought up to attach a pulley with a cord to it - and now they could drag small loads back and forth. Then someone threw a second rope next to it, they somehow connected it with the first one - and by this construction it was already possible to move carefully to the other side. It was a bit dangerous, but the kids liked it. A little later, a group of men gathered and redid the rope bridge completely, making it safe, than the women of both villages did not fail to take advantage of, establishing trade relations. Little by little the commodity turnover grew, demand gave birth to supply, production developed, new houses grew and a real city was formed on the cliff near the gorge. The rope bridge was replaced by a wooden one, which allowed horses and carts to cross the gorge. Progress did not stand still, and after some time the bridge became stone, with iron beams, and even later - completely metal. This bridge is still above the gorge, majestic and benefiting people. ”

The first engineer listened in silence. “An interesting thing,” he finally said, “my bridge was demolished 10 years after it was built. It turned out that it was built in the wrong place and in fact turned out to be unnecessary. Some guys threw a rope across the river a few miles downstream, and it turned out that people had to move there. ”

Translator's note : This is a translation of the chapter “The Tale of Two Bridges” from the book ØMQ - The Guide, the ZeroMQ library guide , which describes the idea of ​​developing this library and opensource products in general. Once upon a time I didn’t like the “Cathedral and Bazaar” metaphor (it seems to me that the essence of things is not explained by these analogies) and I was looking for something in return. The story of the two bridges seemed to me a good alternative.