I wouldn’t use such strong words, but you’re right. Not everything needs to be made for beginners. I keep remembering what Rich Hickey said that seems relevant:
We should not sell humanity short by trying to solve the problem of beginners in our stuff. We need to make things for people to use, and we need to teach people and trust people to be able to learn how to do that.
I fully agree with you. You mentioned that sometimes applying the DRY principle is a bad thing. Really, people often adhere to the DRY principle far too dogmatically.
It’s better to have some duplication than to end up with a wrong abstraction.
I like the AHA principle much more. It suggests:
- Avoid Hasty Abstractions
- Prefer duplication over the wrong abstraction because duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction
And the principle doesn’t suggest avoiding abstractions altogether. It’s really only about avoiding the hasty ones. Wait with the abstraction until you feel it’s necessary or when duplication itself becomes a problem. At that point, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how the abstraction should function.
I really liked the way Sussman discussed repetition in the SICP lectures. Something like, “If you find yourself repeating the something, that’s often a hint that there could be a useful abstraction.” It’s a far less prescriptive (and more appropriately flexible) way of expressing the same general idea than DRY.
> people often adhere to the DRY principle far too dogmatically
This is a problem with all rule of thumbs for programmers. It is like we as a group are far more dogmatic than normal. Or our rules are worse. Or both. Dunno.
