This is a list of rather, generic catch phrases. I think the article isn't worth the time, surprised to find it at the top of HN.
Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
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Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#12Zawinski's law of software envelopment: Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.
The modern angle on this rule is that "Every program eventually adds text chat, and they're all incompatible with each other."
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#13Hyrum's law is highly relevant to anyone who makes software libraries.
"With a sufficient number of users of an API, it does not matter what you promise in the contract: all observable behaviors of your system will be depended on by somebody."
I.e. any internal implementation details that leak as behavior of the API become part of the API. Cf. Microsoft's famous "bug for bug" API compatibility through versions of Windows.
Http://www.hyrumslaw.com
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#14I know this is harsh, but if you're a web developer, and your blog requires a loading screen to read, at least on mobile, then maybe you should take a step back, and learn to program, before you start writing about programming.
100% agree. This website looks terrible. You can't be a self-declared "web developer", contemplate poetically about meta-programming, and publish this amateurish thing. Fix the #anchors to start with?
Hush noob
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#15Zawinski's law of software envelopment: Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.
The modern angle on this rule is that "Every program eventually adds text chat, and they're all incompatible with each other."
Isn't mail just another form of text chat?
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#16I know this is harsh, but if you're a web developer, and your blog requires a loading screen to read, at least on mobile, then maybe you should take a step back, and learn to program, before you start writing about programming.
That loaded extremely slowly on mobile admittedly, but I do agree that you're being overly harsh. Why assume he authored the site himself? Is it a requirement that someone doing web programming has to author their own blog site? It feels like a form of gatekeeping to be honest.
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#17Last week I was trying to remember a term for when a programmer designs a system so generic that it becomes a prototype of itself. For the life of me, I can't remember - anyone here on HN know?
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#18There is an error in the ninety-ninety rule, which should be stated as: The first 90% of the code takes the first 90% of the time. The remaining 10% takes the other 90% of the time.
A personal rule of thumb I derived from the ninety-ninety rule is this: "Before starting a project, ask yourself if you would still do it if you knew it would cost twice as much and take twice as long as you expect. Because it probably will."
Twice is a (reasonable) minimum.
Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)
#19There is an error in the ninety-ninety rule, which should be stated as: The first 90% of the code takes the first 90% of the time. The remaining 10% takes the other 90% of the time.
Note that this isn't a joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule