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Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)

cs.unc.edu

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Re: Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)

#14

Post by praptak »

bsenftner wrote: post #6

Obvious. Why the elevation of the obvious?

A good chunk of great advice is obvious things that people still fail to do.

That's why a collection of "obvious" things formulated in a convincing way by a person with big street cred is still useful and worth elevating.

Re: Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)

#16

Post by mosura »

DrScientist wrote: post #10
bsenftner wrote: post #6

Obvious. Why the elevation of the obvious?

I think for people starting out - rule 5 isn't perhaps that obvious. > Rule 5. Data dominates. If you've chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming. If want to solve a problem - it's natural to think about logic flow and the code that implements that first and the data structures are an afte…

> If want to solve a problem - it's natural to think about logic flow and the code that implements that first and the data structures are an after thought, whereas Rule 5 is spot on.

It is?

How can you conceive of a precise idea of how to solve a problem without a similarly precise idea of how you intend to represent the information fundamental to it? They are inseparable.

Re: Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)

#18

Post by CharlieDigital »

I feel like 1 and 2 are only applicable in cases of novelty.

The thing is, if you build enough of the same kinds of systems in the same kinds of domains, you can kinda tell where you should optimize ahead of time.

Most of us tend to build the same kinds of systems and usually spend a career or a good chunk of our careers in a given domain. I feel like you can't really be considered a staff/principal if you can't already tell ahead of time where the perf bottleneck will be just on experience and intuition.

Re: Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)

#19

Post by bfivyvysj »

Intermernet wrote: post #3
embedding-shape wrote: post #2

"Epigrams in Programming" by Alan J. Perlis has a lot more, if you like short snippets of wisdom :) https://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/perlis-alan/quotes.html > Rule 5. Data dominates. If you've chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming. Always preferred Perlis' version, that might be slightly o…

I believe the actual quote is: "Show me your flowchart and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won't usually need your flowchart; it'll be obvious." -- Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man Month (1975)

This is the biggest issue I see with AI driven development. The data structures are incredibly naive. Yes it's easy to steer them in a different direction but that comes at a long term cost. The further you move from naive the more often you will need to resteer downstream and no amount of context management will help you, it is fighting against the literal mean.
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