This is the philosophy behind Bear Blog. It’s built to last longer than me.
https://herman.bearblog.dev/building-software-to-last-foreve...
Simple Lasts Longer
21–30 of 35 posts
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#22This reminds me of Hello World Enterprise Edition: https://gist.github.com/lolzballs/2152bc0f31ee0286b722 Sometime people really like to complicate instead of keeping things simple. Not just for show off but they genuinely believe something more complicated is better. Better such as it has better security, it has better extendability and is more generic. Even if those features were never in the actual business requir…
That "Hello World Enterprise Edition" looks dangerously under-engineered - I could understand it! Far better to follow the best practices demonstrated in the Fizz Buzz Enterprise Edition...
https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#23>Hobby projects are fragile. They can only last if they’re simple to maintain, otherwise keeping them working becomes tedious and the author eventually gives up.
Literally why I always choose Windows over Linux, Intel/Nvidia over AMD, air cooling over water cooling, etc. for all my computers.
Life is short, ain't nobody got time for jank no more.
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#24This reminds me of Hello World Enterprise Edition: https://gist.github.com/lolzballs/2152bc0f31ee0286b722 Sometime people really like to complicate instead of keeping things simple. Not just for show off but they genuinely believe something more complicated is better. Better such as it has better security, it has better extendability and is more generic. Even if those features were never in the actual business requir…
I don't know all the reasons individual developers would want a more complicated piece of software. Might be to show off, yes, or to learn about a new technology to the detriment of those developers that come after and the Ops people who will have to maintain it. Or they genuinely believe complicated is better.
But the one thing that ultimately adds a lot of unneeded complexity to basically every software project at my work are requirements. That kind of requirement that nobody thought of when the project kicked off. And this kind of requirement that a few months later everyone realizes nobody actually needed. And that you possibly remove after a while. But in the meantime this feature influenced your entire data model or worse.
This is the point where your previously fun work turns into a slog for the duration of said project. Well at least we can still have fun with our hobby projects!
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#25This reminds me of Hello World Enterprise Edition: https://gist.github.com/lolzballs/2152bc0f31ee0286b722 Sometime people really like to complicate instead of keeping things simple. Not just for show off but they genuinely believe something more complicated is better. Better such as it has better security, it has better extendability and is more generic. Even if those features were never in the actual business requir…
I don't know all the reasons individual developers would want a more complicated piece of software. Might be to show off, yes, or to learn about a new technology to the detriment of those developers that come after and the Ops people who will have to maintain it. Or they genuinely believe complicated is better. But the one thing that ultimately adds a lot of unneeded complexity to basically every software project at…
When I look back, I see my "overengineering everything" era as a phase, a live lesson to be learnt. I overengineered a couple of things massively because I didn't know what lied ahead and that helped me, but then I learnt that it's harmful as the "default mode of programming".
As I understood how performance worked, what's maintainability and minimalism (as a general concept), the code I write became minimal and simpler.
Currently I'm working in a mode which can be called "overgrow and extend". I start with the most simplistic code which satisfies the design and my requirements, then refactor any part which cracks under the design to satisfy the requirements without being hacky. This philosophy works like a charm for me. Coupled with my "needless comments", getting back into context and extending/maintaining the code is easier than ever.
I even started to finish and deploy my personal projects. It's that effective for me.
Now I'm learning live documentation, which allows me to write the documentation of the things I'm working on simultaneously. When things finish I also have a workable documentation as a result.
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know all the reasons individual developers would want a more complicated piece of software. Might be to show off, yes, or to learn about a new technology to the detriment of those developers that come after and the Ops people who will have to maintain it. Or they genuinely believe complicated is better. But the one thing that ultimately adds a lot of unneeded complexity to basically every software project at…
When I look back, I see my "overengineering everything" era as a phase, a live lesson to be learnt. I overengineered a couple of things massively because I didn't know what lied ahead and that helped me, but then I learnt that it's harmful as the "default mode of programming". As I understood how performance worked, what's maintainability and minimalism (as a general concept), the code I write became minimal and simp…
You are of course right that developers have to learn to keep things simple and that skill comes from overengineering stuff. Maybe I have been overly negative on my original comment. As long as it's just a "phase" the long-term benefits of going through that phase should be much higher than the short-term costs to your org.
Good on you for having success with your personal projects!
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#27> This works by default, without any permission prompts. How come? Is WebStorage exempt from GDPR? (I searched a bit and found both yes and no answers.)
The GDPR is concerned with using cookies or storage for tracking users without their consent, not with using cookies or storage as such. You don't need to ask for permission to use cookies (or similar techniques) in general – only when using them for evil. GitHub wrote a blog post [0] on this a few years ago.
Most cookie banners try to conflate the different uses of cookies to trick users into consenting to the tracking the law is meant to protect against. They are essentially the equivalent of a restaurant asking you "Knife Consent: This restaurant uses knives for 1) cutting vegetables and 2) removing your organs to sell on the black market. CONSENT TO ALL?"
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#28I wonder if you do not have more interesting things to see in Paris than crude Space Invader pixel art. That would be really neat if it was all over Chelyabinsk or Sao Paolo, or maybe some derelict US suburbia. But Paris? Come on! Same thing with London and Banksy, btw. Of all the things you could see.
I would assume this is more intended for locals or frequent visitors. Paris is nice, but after a few months it becomes like any other city.
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#29This reminds me of Hello World Enterprise Edition: https://gist.github.com/lolzballs/2152bc0f31ee0286b722 Sometime people really like to complicate instead of keeping things simple. Not just for show off but they genuinely believe something more complicated is better. Better such as it has better security, it has better extendability and is more generic. Even if those features were never in the actual business requir…
> it has better extendability and is more generic
Those are noble goals; I think the problem arises when devs forget that "change the code" and "replace with something else" are perfectly valid options. Adding a plugin interface and override hooks, just in case they might be needed, for an internal library, then it's a classic case of YAGNI. When an implementation is so configurable that passing it a config is more effort than writing a bespoke implementation, then it may be an example of the "inner platform effect".
I wrote about this sort of thing on StackExchange a few years ago https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/382229/11211...
Re: Simple Lasts Longer
#30Local Storage falls apart on iPad/iPhone, unfortunately. The data is deleted if you don’t visit the site often enough. I lost my Wordle stats over a vacation this way.
Even worse, if you have an HTML game hosted on itch.io (which uses a cross-domain iframe, for security), Safari just silently discards all Local Storage when you close the tab, with no option to disable this behavior on a specific site.
I know Local Storage is supposed to be just a cache, but I really wish we had opt-in durable storage…