Comments for Mental Pandiculation http://mentalpandiculation.com One Man's Attempt To Find Elegant Code Through Big Words Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Comment on Confusing The Perfect With Progress by garann http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/06/confusing-the-perfect-with-progress/comment-page-1/#comment-384 garann Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:37:00 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=364#comment-384 Ah. I said it was bullshit in the same way a fairy tale is bullshit - it's not "real" in the sense that it's achievable, but serves an important purpose in keeping developers on the right track, like telling your kids stories about evil witches who live in the woods hopefully helps keep them out of the woods where they may get lost or break their legs or something. Parents BS their kids by telling them fairy tales, but do it with the best intentions and because it's easier than explaining the complexities of what they really want them to do and why. We do the same thing with beginner developers and separation of concerns. The point about not erring on the side of patterns/guidelines is that we're not beginner developers (or, even if we are, won't always be). That shorthand for the host of things we want to accomplish bears examination when it's no longer clearly applicable. Rather than just saying, this isn't clear, so go with the best separation of concerns, we should be examining the specifics of why separation of concerns is important at that level and why it's difficult to achieve and weighing those, not patterns or buzzwords. Ah. I said it was bullshit in the same way a fairy tale is bullshit – it’s not “real” in the sense that it’s achievable, but serves an important purpose in keeping developers on the right track, like telling your kids stories about evil witches who live in the woods hopefully helps keep them out of the woods where they may get lost or break their legs or something. Parents BS their kids by telling them fairy tales, but do it with the best intentions and because it’s easier than explaining the complexities of what they really want them to do and why. We do the same thing with beginner developers and separation of concerns.

The point about not erring on the side of patterns/guidelines is that we’re not beginner developers (or, even if we are, won’t always be). That shorthand for the host of things we want to accomplish bears examination when it’s no longer clearly applicable. Rather than just saying, this isn’t clear, so go with the best separation of concerns, we should be examining the specifics of why separation of concerns is important at that level and why it’s difficult to achieve and weighing those, not patterns or buzzwords.

]]> Comment on Confusing The Perfect With Progress by Niklaus Wirth's Ghost http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/06/confusing-the-perfect-with-progress/comment-page-1/#comment-383 Niklaus Wirth's Ghost Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:06:38 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=364#comment-383 My general feeling was that your post was a rant against people who treated SoC as the end, not the means. Looking back at my post, I wasn't at all clear regarding that which is my bad. However, you also said SoC was "Bullshit". It's difficult for me to see how something can be both useful and bullshit (unless it's fertilizer). I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with you, more trying to clarify the usefulness of SoC. Certainly, at any sufficiently fine level of granularity, most patterns and guidelines are going to disappear. But I think that most developers should err on the side of the patterns and guidelines because without them, what inevitably happens is a huge mess. My general feeling was that your post was a rant against people who treated SoC as the end, not the means. Looking back at my post, I wasn’t at all clear regarding that which is my bad. However, you also said SoC was “Bullshit”. It’s difficult for me to see how something can be both useful and bullshit (unless it’s fertilizer). I wasn’t necessarily disagreeing with you, more trying to clarify the usefulness of SoC.

Certainly, at any sufficiently fine level of granularity, most patterns and guidelines are going to disappear. But I think that most developers should err on the side of the patterns and guidelines because without them, what inevitably happens is a huge mess.

]]> Comment on Confusing The Perfect With Progress by garann http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/06/confusing-the-perfect-with-progress/comment-page-1/#comment-382 garann Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:54:55 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=364#comment-382 No offense, but I think you missed the point of my post. I did not say separation of concerns is useless - to the contrary, I said verbatim that it's useFUL. The argument is not that it fails as a rule because it's not possible to achieve perfection, it's that sometimes the underlying reasons separation of concerns exists as a philosophy aren't applicable. Sometimes we don't make our application better with SoC, we just adhere to a guideline that doesn't really apply to situations at a certain level of granularity. SoC should not win those arguments by default - there should be more thorough reasoning about whether a choice will negatively impact debugging or skinability or internationalization. No offense, but I think you missed the point of my post. I did not say separation of concerns is useless – to the contrary, I said verbatim that it’s useFUL. The argument is not that it fails as a rule because it’s not possible to achieve perfection, it’s that sometimes the underlying reasons separation of concerns exists as a philosophy aren’t applicable. Sometimes we don’t make our application better with SoC, we just adhere to a guideline that doesn’t really apply to situations at a certain level of granularity. SoC should not win those arguments by default – there should be more thorough reasoning about whether a choice will negatively impact debugging or skinability or internationalization.

]]> Comment on Configuring IUnityContainer by Caleb Jenkins http://mentalpandiculation.com/2009/06/configuring-iunitycontainer/comment-page-1/#comment-334 Caleb Jenkins Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:29:29 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=138#comment-334 Brett - It's funny how often these scenarios come up. I usually end up with a ISettings class that end up implementing for this sort of thing, then use the methods you describe here to build it up, or use .config xml values if that is an option. Either way (using a settings class or passing a param) you end up abstracting your config values from the standard .net .configs which makes your classes more mobile and easier to test. Good call. Brett –

It’s funny how often these scenarios come up. I usually end up with a ISettings class that end up implementing for this sort of thing, then use the methods you describe here to build it up, or use .config xml values if that is an option. Either way (using a settings class or passing a param) you end up abstracting your config values from the standard .net .configs which makes your classes more mobile and easier to test. Good call.

]]> Comment on Why I Don’t Hang Out With People Named David by Niklaus Wirth's Ghost http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-hang-out-with-people-named-david/comment-page-1/#comment-321 Niklaus Wirth's Ghost Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:03:14 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=334#comment-321 @Mike - You may be on to something there, they are exercising their choice and therefore are much more likely to be cool. @Scott - Sorry about the middle name but since you choose to go by Scott in most circles (and we won't talk about the circles you don't), you're probably cool. @Mike – You may be on to something there, they are exercising their choice and therefore are much more likely to be cool.

@Scott – Sorry about the middle name but since you choose to go by Scott in most circles (and we won’t talk about the circles you don’t), you’re probably cool.

]]> Comment on Why I Don’t Hang Out With People Named David by Bogdan Varlamov http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-hang-out-with-people-named-david/comment-page-1/#comment-312 Bogdan Varlamov Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:19:40 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=334#comment-312 I think Microsoft should create a CLR compatible language named "David"... that uses PHP syntax... and then write a clone of Expensify with it... I think Microsoft should create a CLR compatible language named “David”… that uses PHP syntax… and then write a clone of Expensify with it…

]]> Comment on Why I Don’t Hang Out With People Named David by Johan Bjärneryd http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-hang-out-with-people-named-david/comment-page-1/#comment-298 Johan Bjärneryd Mon, 28 Mar 2011 06:21:29 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=334#comment-298 Gave me a nice laugh in the early monday morning. Tnx! :) Thinking about it, most of my David-friends aren't actually that cool ;) Gave me a nice laugh in the early monday morning. Tnx! :)

Thinking about it, most of my David-friends aren’t actually that cool ;)

]]> Comment on Why I Don’t Hang Out With People Named David by Scott David Hanselman http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-hang-out-with-people-named-david/comment-page-1/#comment-297 Scott David Hanselman Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:26:33 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=334#comment-297 Not sure how I feel about this one! ;) Still, I tweeted it and it was on the Twitter homepage, so that's awesome. Not sure how I feel about this one! ;)

Still, I tweeted it and it was on the Twitter homepage, so that’s awesome.

]]> Comment on Why I Don’t Hang Out With People Named David by Criticizing Technology Preferences and the Expensify Train Wreck « Brandon.ToString() http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-hang-out-with-people-named-david/comment-page-1/#comment-296 Criticizing Technology Preferences and the Expensify Train Wreck « Brandon.ToString() Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:56:25 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=334#comment-296 [...] If you’re unable to answer that question, you may as well be arguing Why You Don’t Hang Out With People Named David. [...] [...] If you’re unable to answer that question, you may as well be arguing Why You Don’t Hang Out With People Named David. [...]

]]> Comment on Why I Don’t Hang Out With People Named David by Marc Brooks http://mentalpandiculation.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-hang-out-with-people-named-david/comment-page-1/#comment-295 Marc Brooks Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:37:03 +0000 http://mentalpandiculation.com/?p=334#comment-295 Bingo! Bingo!

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