Certainly the requirements change and we modify the foundations of our systems all the time to reflect this. However, there are those useful abstractions which seems to survive a certain amount of time so as to allow us to study them, and then there are the yearly hypes.
That list manipulating library might still be based on concepts which are understandable and communicable to their users, allowing us to reason at different levels on their internal and external behavior. This in turn allows us to say, at a certain abstraction level: this code is complete. Thinking of Occam we might continue: given our preconditions, our abstractions, our algebra: this is the simplest.
It is fair to believe that 'perfect' means that all unnecessary complexity is removed. But, I would like to argue againts its usage, as the word carries too much emotional baggage in this context.
That list manipulating library might still be based on concepts which are understandable and communicable to their users, allowing us to reason at different levels on their internal and external behavior. This in turn allows us to say, at a certain abstraction level: this code is complete. Thinking of Occam we might continue: given our preconditions, our abstractions, our algebra: this is the simplest.
It is fair to believe that 'perfect' means that all unnecessary complexity is removed. But, I would like to argue againts its usage, as the word carries too much emotional baggage in this context.