What are some common misconceptions about programming that you'd like to debunk?

3 years ago by Mac to c/programming

load all comments
stevecrox 30 points 3 years ago

Technical Leads are not rational beings and lots of software is developed from an emotional stand point.

Engineering is trade offs, every technical decision you make has a pro/con.

What you should do is write out the core requirements/constraints.Then you weigh the choices to select the option that best meets it.

What actually happens is someone really likes X framework, Y programming language or Z methodology and so decides the solution and then looks for reasons to justify it.

Currently the obvious tell is if they pitch Rust. I am not saying Rust is bad, but you'll notice they will extoll the memory safety or performance and forget about the actual requirements of the project.

path: 0 7306936, hotness: undefined, score: 30, children: 3
abhibeckert 26 points 3 years ago

Currently the obvious tell is if they pitch Rust

I would amend that to "if they pitch any language".

The best language is almost universally "whatever we already use" or for new projects "whatever the team is most familiar with". It should occasionally be reconsidered, and definitely try out new languages, but actually switching to the new language after trying it out? That should be very very rare.

path: 0 7306936 7307230, hotness: undefined, score: 26, children: 2
stevecrox 6 points 3 years ago

The team/organisations knowledge is a huge factor but its easy to fall into a trap where no matter what the problem is the solution is X language.

If I have an organisation that knows C# and we need to build a Web Application. I would suggest we need to learn Node.js and Typescript and not invest in a solution that turns C# into web pages.

path: 0 7306936 7307230 7307500, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 1
programming
programming

@programming.dev

login for more options
28869
3734
3332

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Rules

  • Follow the programming.dev instance rules
  • Keep content related to programming in some way
  • If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev


go to feed...