Famous Laws of Software Development (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#21

Post by Sahhaese » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

hokumguru wrote: post #17

Last week I was trying to remember a term for when a programmer designs a system so generic that it becomes a prototype of itself. For the life of me, I can't remember - anyone here on HN know?

That's the inner platform effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner-platform_effect

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#22

Post by dgacmu » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

Page author, if you read this: Fred Brooks last name has an s. (Brooks, not Brook.) It should be Brooks' law.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#23

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 2:37 PM UTC

dreta wrote: post #4

I know this is harsh, but if you're a web developer, and your blog requires a loading screen to read, at least on mobile, then maybe you should take a step back, and learn to program, before you start writing about programming.

Oh no, the problem is they DO know how to program; a simple web page (or off the shelf CMS or blog software) is too easy.

Anyway, this was made with Ghost according to the generator tag; send https://ghost.org/ a ping that you're willing to help them improve their software.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#24

Post by asimpletune » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 2:37 PM UTC

dreta wrote: post #4

I know this is harsh, but if you're a web developer, and your blog requires a loading screen to read, at least on mobile, then maybe you should take a step back, and learn to program, before you start writing about programming.

HN’s law 1: anything you didn’t build seems worse to you.

HN’s law 2: you always become a parody of yourself.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#25

Post by kgwgk » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 2:37 PM UTC

  Some people, when confronted with a problem,
  think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.”   
  Now they have two problems.

(Originally with "sed" instead of "regular expressions")

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#26

Post by dahart » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 2:39 PM UTC

Moore’s law is dead!

Also, I think Murphy’s law should be removed, it’s less true than the other laws here.

I read a fantastic article many years ago in the Atlantic where the author was analyzing and deconstructing an airplane crash, and in it was a paragraph about how Murphy’s law is completely backwards, and in reality if things can go right, then they will. Things will almost always go right unless there’s no possible way they can, in other words only the extremely rare alignment of multiple mistakes causes catastrophes. Can’t remember if the author had a name for the alternative Murphy’s law, but I believe it, especially in software. We get away with crappy software and bugs & mistakes all over the place.