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Don't Reinvent the Wheel

oscargodson.posterous.com

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yea, true.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#62
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 )

Reinventing the wheel, not making a better wheel.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother tongue is not English, but such silly errors are inexcusable. It takes a second to google the correct form. In fact, "it's self" put me off completely and I never completed the article. So, IMHO, good spelling and grammar are essential to any discussion.

Are you kidding me? You use IMHO and correct me on grammar?

what's wrong with IMHO? And how does it somehow make me unworthy of correcting your grammar?

You also used "it's" instead of "its" in a couple of places.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#64
post #37
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.

My usage is a well-established if secondary meaning. See for yourself: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shibboleth, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shibboleth, http://www.google.com/search?q=site:wikiquote.org+shibboleth, even (selected at random from project gutenberg texts) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/356/356-h/356-h.htm. Can you find a better word? I'd happily replace it, but I can't think of any other that means a platitude that happens to be false.

Just to get back on topic, I'm disappointed that no one else seems to appreciate the beauty of oscargodson's question. It's one of those things that is dope-slap obvious, but only once you see it.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#65
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.

This is my standard MO for learning big new ideas. Say for example I want to use MVC for the first time. Once I think I understand the general idea, I will build my own. I might peak at Rails or Struts or whatever to see how they solve something, but in general I just go my own way. Once I have something to approximately proof of concept level, I feel ready to go out and evaluate existing options with a pretty high level of confidence in my conclusions.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#66
post #59

For example, in programming there is a wide-spread 1st order theory that one shouldn't build one's own tools, languages, and especially operating systems. This is true — an incredible amount of time and energy has gone down these ratholes. On the 2nd hand, if you can build your own tools, languages and operating systems, then you *absolutely should* because the leverage that can be obtained (and often the time not wa…

And, how would one learn how to make their own tools, languages, and operating systems? You have to build them to learn how. So how does one build them without ever having built them?

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#67
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!

My mother tongue is not English, but such silly errors are inexcusable. It takes a second to google the correct form. In fact, "it's self" put me off completely and I never completed the article. So, IMHO, good spelling and grammar are essential to any discussion.

Such silly errors are entirely excusable. I would like to know more about all these commenters who are so up in arms about this mistake that they did not deign to complete the article. You would have been very unhappy people before English spelling was standardized. I cannot imaging rejecting the substance of an article due to such cosmetic issues. I guess this is a consequence of the group here considering your postings on HN to be some kind of resume or CV. Colour me unimpressed with the herd.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#68
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!

My mother tongue is not English, but such silly errors are inexcusable. It takes a second to google the correct form. In fact, "it's self" put me off completely and I never completed the article. So, IMHO, good spelling and grammar are essential to any discussion.

[deleted]

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#69
post #64
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what a shibboleth is.

My usage is a well-established if secondary meaning. See for yourself: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shibboleth , http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shibboleth , http://www.google.com/search?q=site:wikiquote.org+shibboleth , even (selected at random from project gutenberg texts) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/356/356-h/356-h.htm . Can you find a better word? I'd happily replace it, but I can't think o…

Right on both counts! Consider the upvote my atonement for being overly and not entirely correctly nit-picky.

Re: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

#70
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ap…

Hey Oscar, thanks for replying. I'd like to address your third point right off the bat, since it's the most important one: I didn't read your blog post. I stopped reading it after you spelled "itself" as "it's self". And, just like you said, it's because your grammar put me off. It's not that big of a deal to me, and shouldn't be to you, if you never intended anyone to read your post except for the person you were re…

See grammar and spelling nazis are EXACTLY whom my grandmother and people like Stephen Fry despise: http://vimeo.com/15412319

He can illustrate her exact point, and mine also better than I can here.

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