The complexity issues seem to happen with every networking protocol that I've seen "grow up", even those designed explicitly for simplicity, like TFTP. The fabled "xmodem" protocol is a great example, starting as a ridiculously naive call and response, sprouting some error correction (xmodem CRC), then getting improvements, morphing into "ymodem" and "zmodem". Is this a modality for software in general, or just for "feral" software, where the spec or source code escapes into the wild, then lots of people "port" it, "improve" it or otherwise tinker with it, and there's some kind of fitness function that determines survival?
The complexity issues seem to happen with every networking protocol that I've seen "grow up", even those designed explicitly for simplicity, like TFTP. The fabled "xmodem" protocol is a great example, starting as a ridiculously naive call and response, sprouting some error correction (xmodem CRC), then getting improvements, morphing into "ymodem" and "zmodem". Is this a modality for software in general, or just for "feral" software, where the spec or source code escapes into the wild, then lots of people "port" it, "improve" it or otherwise tinker with it, and there's some kind of fitness function that determines survival?