> As a matter of fact, commercial passenger service started almost immediately as the tech was out of the fiction phase. The airship were large, highly experimental, barely controllable, hydrogen-filled death traps that were marketed as luxurious and safe.

And here, you've stumbled onto the exact thing I'm objecting to. I think the Hindenburg disaster was a bad thing, and software engineering shouldn't repeat those mistakes.

> Very well, then Mr Tinkleberry also passes the bar because it's exactly such a trick. That it irks you as a cheap hack that lacks rigor (which it does) is another matter.

Yes, this is what I said.

> there's a critical difference between engineering research, and experimenting on unwitting people.

I object to watching developers do, exactly that.