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The reason your convertible looks kind of grandmotherly with the
top up is that it's a product of top-down design. It was made to
look good with the top down.
Elsewhere (in electronics, for example), top-down design refers to
designing the generalities first, then filling in the next level of
details, then the next and so on down finally to the level where the
actual little men sit in the circuitry counting the electrons
as they pass. I'm no expert, though. Maybe the electrons actually
count the little men. And/or women.
Bottom-up design refers to designing the details first. Then at least
you know that each little subsystem works, and you just hope mightily
that they will all fit together. If not, then your project goes
bottom up.
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Mark L. Levinson, SEE Technologies, Box 544, Herzlia, Israel
mark -at- dcl-see -dot- co -dot- il | voice +972-9-584684, ext. 230 | fax +972-9-543917
