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Don't Reinvent the Wheel

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Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#41

Post by slewis »

pemulis wrote: post #20
slewis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a good point but less relevant to the discussion than some of the other comments here, and currently has 3x the points of all other posts in this thread. Don't just upvote just because you agree, upvote because a post contributes to the discussion!

I'm not so sure... When a blog post has basic grammatical/spelling errors, it means that the writer didn't bother to do any significant copy-editing. If the author can't take the time to copy-edit their post, why should we take the time to read it? The presence of obvious errors sends a signal that either the author's thoughts are disorganized, or he doesn't take them seriously enough to make sure they're expressed c…

I think there are people who have interesting ideas but who can't express them as well as others. The ideas may still be worth discussion. And of course anyone who doesn't want to comment doesn't have to.

Its a bit dissonant when a post is upvoted enough to be on the front page but the highest voted comment is about the post's style rather than content. The post upvoters were probably voting on content, not style.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#42

Post by KeithMajhor »

abbasmehdi wrote: post #29
KeithMajhor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it takes less time to do it again yourself than it does to find and understand someone else's solution is that so bad?

That's a systemic flaw, not a justification for redundancy.

From the perspective of an individual, fixing a systemic flaw is going to take much longer than just operating within it. There are cases where "reinventing the wheel" is just the best way to go.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#43

Post by dpcan »

On one hand, he says he hates the phrase, but it doesn't look like he hates what it means - or maybe he doesn't understand what it means - I'm a little confused by the take-away from the article.

That being said...

Re-inventing the wheel should mean throwing away everything we know about the wheel and inventing something that solves the same problem - only better.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#44

Post by terryjsmith »

Totally disagree. I don't think I've ever heard this phrase used when someone's primary intention is to make a better wheel. If you're building cars, do not try to reinvent the wheel. Leave it to someone who is all about wheels.

Which is my main beef with this article: when it comes to developers, you absolutely can reinvent a piece of technology, but if it's not the focus of your business, you need to be prepared to make it your focus if it's really that important or that big an opportunity. There are a ton of great examples of technology being reinvented or improved (see HipHop from FB and FlockDB from Twitter), but they tend to represent a marginal plus to the business and are still not their core focus. I hate it when developers want to create their own database for their app, their own game engine for their game, etc. Wheels, game engines, and most software is a full time business, not an adjunct. Just use what's available to you until you absolutely need to do it over or do it yourself.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#45

Post by dpcan »

3am wrote: post #37
gruseom wrote: post #24

Is there anything more reinvented than the wheel? This line is brilliant. How often does one run across such a definitive reply to a shibboleth?

That's not what a shibboleth is.

Agreed. I had to Google it, and I don't really know what word he meant either now.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#46

Post by spc476 »

abbasmehdi wrote: post #29
KeithMajhor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it takes less time to do it again yourself than it does to find and understand someone else's solution is that so bad?

That's a systemic flaw, not a justification for redundancy.

So I guess writing a DNS resolving library wasn't justified, even though it dropped the memory footprint from 15M (when using C-Ares) to 400k (a bit more information about this here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2324428)

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#47

Post by oscargodson »

pemulis wrote: post #20
slewis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a good point but less relevant to the discussion than some of the other comments here, and currently has 3x the points of all other posts in this thread. Don't just upvote just because you agree, upvote because a post contributes to the discussion!

I'm not so sure... When a blog post has basic grammatical/spelling errors, it means that the writer didn't bother to do any significant copy-editing. If the author can't take the time to copy-edit their post, why should we take the time to read it? The presence of obvious errors sends a signal that either the author's thoughts are disorganized, or he doesn't take them seriously enough to make sure they're expressed c…

1. This was a response to a reply from a comment I made on a blog.

2. My grandmother has a Ph.D in linguistics and knows probably a dozen languages. Boy would it be hilarious for you to talk to her. I can't even mention how many times I've talked to her about how spelling and grammar doesn't matter as long as the point and idea is conveyed and UNDERSTOOD. She's even against spelling out of things like "though" and apostrophes altogether.

3. If my blog post put you off this much because I spelled "it's self" instead of "itself" and had grammatical errors when I was in a hurry to write a response to someone, don't read it.

4. Not saying I'm even 1% as smart as him, but saying my thoughts are disorganized is a compliment. Einstein and some of the smartest people of all time have failed at writing/english and always been known as "disorganized": http://25.media.tumblr.com/b9vfl4b63gnm701hGDPaIVP0o1_500.pn... -- his desk. Organized people bore me to death.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#48

Post by oscargodson »

dpcan wrote: post #43

On one hand, he says he hates the phrase, but it doesn't look like he hates what it means - or maybe he doesn't understand what it means - I'm a little confused by the take-away from the article. That being said... Re-inventing the wheel should mean throwing away everything we know about the wheel and inventing something that solves the same problem - only better.

I said, and mean "Reinventing the wheel is what makes good developers legends, not the other way around. Remember that." And i never said i hate what it means, ever. I said I hate when people say it as a bad thing.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#49

Post by oscargodson »

abstractbill wrote: post #38
rmoriz wrote: post #14

Don't reinvent the wheel if you have no clear reason / vision to do so. Period. Also most "re-inventions" are driven by a lack of understanding of the existing solutions or the non existing faith to stick to conventions. Many of the conventions are probably a legacy and should be "attacked" BUT if you do that, have a clear vision and reason to do so. Just don't go the road because it looks easier. It won't.

Reinventing just about any wheel will at least teach you a lot about how that type of wheel works, even if your reinvention never makes it into production.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. :)

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#50

Post by oscargodson »

_delirium wrote: post #4

It's nitpicky, but the second time I saw "itself" written as "it's self" I cringed extra-hard.

This is the 2nd time I read someone mention it and I just cringed "extra-hard". Especially when you made a grammar error yourself: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/hyphens.asp
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