DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
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DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
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Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#2Especially if there is a very common refactoring bug and you get a pepperoni pizza instead of a pizza with one of the most natural toppings like pineapple.
But I tend to agree with the author. Sometimes verbosity is the lesser evil. No suggestion should become a dogma and whoever played some games of code golf knows that short code doesn't mean code that is easy to read. Extreme example of course. But I believe many start to optimize in this way just as a way to reduce the line count.
Still, there is still room for some kind of factories or function templates (not in the c++ sense). I think a user is allowed to repeat himself but then again a user is just another arbitrary layer again. But if such helpers are to be implemented, I tend to like it in a place where the user is invoking said helpers and not on the level below that if that makes sense.
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#3Two instances isn't worth consolidating because it's hard to know whether the similarities are real or coincidental. Check out the rule of three: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(computer_progra...
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#4Especially if there is a very common refactoring bug and you get a pepperoni pizza instead of a pizza with one of the most natural toppings like pineapple. But I tend to agree with the author. Sometimes verbosity is the lesser evil. No suggestion should become a dogma and whoever played some games of code golf knows that short code doesn't mean code that is easy to read. Extreme example of course. But I believe many…
My favorite pizza is pepperoni with pineapple and red beans.
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#5 left_toppings = ["beef"]
right_toppings = []
make_pizza([left_toppings,
right_toppings]) # this will be a very funny pizza
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#6> "Had we started out with two pizza types that have different crust/sauce/cheese, we never would have made this refactor. Instead of our code being architected around the concept of how pizzas are made in the abstract, its architecture is tightly coupled to the specific needs of these two pizzas that we happened to be dealing with. The chance that we will be putting this code back the way it was is extremely high."
Maybe.
But maybe you're falling prey to the other programmer trap - catering for conceivable situations that are just never going to happen, and making your codebase unnecessarily accommodating as a result. This is another great source of complexity, and quite often the source of unnecessary abstractions (which add to cognitive load) too.
In my experience it's better to cope with half-and-half pizza toppings when they arise, rather than coding as if they're already needed. Because when they are needed, you'll probably find the requirement is actually to put them on a 3-tier wedding cake, or a car.
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#7But wouldn't rejecting DRY (in a way) follow another over-rated programming principle called KISS? /s
In all fairness, the best programming principle is: just like with software licenses, know what to use and when.
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#8People should reconsider writing articles like these. It's just a list of (3!) criticisms. You can still have your click-baity title, but why not write about when and how to use XYZ principle instead?
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#9What forced me most to use DRY in inappropriate ways is typing out blocks of the same code again and again. Then I realized that and began to maintain and use easily expandable snippets with fillable placeholders. It turned out that my mind had no objections against repetitive code at all, and the clarity of it has only increased, due to the lack of context switches and parametric entanglement.
Re: DRY is an over-rated programming principle?
#10left_toppings = ["beef"] right_toppings = [] make_pizza([left_toppings, right_toppings]) # this will be a very funny pizza Holy cow I was not expecting a none pizza with left beef reference in code form
For anyone curious, here is the background of this, via Hank Green: https://youtu.be/5yWTPtPYukg
Be prepared for laughter