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dblotsky

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Hard agree with the idea of greppability, but hard disagree about keeping names the same across boundaries.

I think the benefit of having one symbol exist in only one domain (e.g. “user_request” only showing up in the database-handling code, where it’s used 3 times, and not in the UI code, where it might’ve been used 30 times) reduces more cognitive load than is added by searching for 2 symbols instead of 1 common one.

Those all sound plausible! But...

1) I suspect GNU Make will be installed on any system where node code will run.

2) You don’t have to .PHONY anything that will never be a real file.

3) My bet is the Makefile will be shorter and clearer, but I am of course biased since I’m used to the syntax.

Yeah, that tradeoff between generality and correctness really seems tyrannical.

It kind of feels like the best trajectory is to start small with a general build system, and upgrade as needed? And then if you are confident the project will grow, starting with the specific build system fine too.

I am personally not convinced that any build system can be correct and general, but perhaps that’s my lack of experience speaking.

On that 30 minute note though: so, how big does the project need to be in order for Make not to be enough? And at that size, why wouldn’t the project invest the extra week it takes to get the Makefile correct?

Baumol Effect 6 years ago

Can this all be explained by the cost of labor being uniform (since humans are humans in all industries)?

So if one industry demands more labor, all others will feel the rising price of labor?

The one I often go for is: “What is the reason you’re not using sshd?”

It implies that I understand there is a reason, that I don’t know the reason, and that I’m ready to be surprised if indeed there is no good reason.

1). It doesn’t work in all shells, so you have to think about your environment before you use it.

2). I often start with `bar < foo`, so if I need to add more arguments to `bar`, I need to always skip over the input.

3). If I just want to delete all processing and look at the input, I can’t just backspace away the processing because `< foo` is invalid.

China is investing in Belarus. They build factories and infrastructure, likely to get easier access to the European markets.

We often forget, but even the world’s top professionals get tired, cut corners, and make mistakes.

But also, what substantial gains would have come from adopting the techniques in this article?

You’re right, and I’m not at all against having custom tools in any controlled environment. In fact, I think enhancing a controlled environment with custom tools is extremely productive.

My point was more about education. I think becoming an expert in the standard tools should come before learning any custom ones, because it is a transferable skill.