use Perl

• But what's a "problem"? (Score:1)

  by Adrian (66)

  Many people cite the famous quote "Premature optimization root of all evil", but that's just a specific case of a more general problem: trying to fix things that aren't identified as a problem. YAGNI is God.

  I, of course, agree completely :-)

  However it can be tricky to pull off if different people have different ideas of what a "problem" is. To me, duplicate and/or unclear code is a big problem. Something that needs fixing straight away. Other people don't seem to think that way unfortunately.
  • Re:But what's a "problem"? (Score:2)

    by drhyde (1683) on 2005.10.04 5:12 (#43696) Homepage Journal

    I'm of the opinion that premature generalisation of code is just as evil as premature optimisation. So many people want to write all-things-to-all-men generic frameworks when all their customer has asked for is Hello World.

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    • Re:But what's a "problem"? (Score:1)

      by Adrian (66)

      I agree completely that premature generalisation that creates the kind of uber-frameworks that many Java folk seem enamoured off is evil.

      That's not my aim however. I'm removing duplication. I'm solving an existing problem with less code. I am very definitely not trying to solve any general problem that isn't in the code already.
      • Re:But what's a "problem"? (Score:2)

        by drhyde (1683)

        I wasn't talking about you - or indeed about anyone in particular. The thread just prompted me to repeat something I was ranting about in the pub last night.
        • Re:But what's a "problem"? (Score:1)

          by Adrian (66)

          In that case rant away :-)
    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Aristotle (5147)

      Architecture astronauts [joelonsoftware.com]?