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This is probably better from a quality perspective and also probably not worth the time it would take in 90% of projects. That being said I'm amazed how much p

by jrsj 6y ago

This is probably better from a quality perspective and also probably not worth the time it would take in 90% of projects. That being said I'm amazed how much production software depends on multiple libraries that are developed and maintained by a single person as a hobby.

madeofpalk 6y ago
Yeah like as a frontend/web developer, most of what we do is make what are essentially Wordpress themes for some company that really doesn’t matter or do much important.
ClikeX 6y ago
That one person (sometimes) puts in more effort into that single library then I've seen some agencies put into a client project.
- wwweston 6y ago
  Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. It's pretty common for someone building a library to do so for the utility, scratching a real itch. Not universal (people build libraries to be someone who built a library, too), but common. It's very common for agencies to be building client projects in order to bill for it. Sometimes there's a special alignment where the client is also primarily interested in spending an allotted budget so long as there's a plausibly adequate deliverable.
- typon 6y ago
  It's hard for me to think of open source libraries that are developed and maintained by mega corporations that I actually prefer to use over libraries made by small indie developers. The only one that I can think of is pytorch, but thats kind of unfair since it was acquired by Facebook not developed from scratch by them.
  - tracker1 6y ago
    For me, the biggest is React... aside from that, not much really.
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    Golang is pretty well liked. And Guava in Java land, and Abseil in C++. It's not too surprising that the stuff big companies make for their needs isn't as useful for small indie devs as stuff small indie devs make.
alibarber 6y ago
Sure, everything's a tradeoff - but sometimes I see things like that as frontloading the pain of when bndlrrr.io or whatever goes down in the middle of the night and your client is angry at you. But yeah, like everything in software, it's a spectrum and 'best practice' and the 'right way' are highly dependent on the context.
benhurmarcel 6y ago
https://xkcd.com/2347/ https://xkcd.com/2347/

by jrsj 6y ago

madeofpalk 6y ago

Yeah like as a frontend/web developer, most of what we do is make what are essentially Wordpress themes for some company that really doesn’t matter or do much important.

ClikeX 6y ago

That one person (sometimes) puts in more effort into that single library then I've seen some agencies put into a client project.

wwweston 6y ago
Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. It's pretty common for someone building a library to do so for the utility, scratching a real itch. Not universal (people build libraries to be someone who built a library, too), but common. It's very common for agencies to be building client projects in order to bill for it. Sometimes there's a special alignment where the client is also primarily interested in spending an allotted budget so long as there's a plausibly adequate deliverable.
typon 6y ago
It's hard for me to think of open source libraries that are developed and maintained by mega corporations that I actually prefer to use over libraries made by small indie developers. The only one that I can think of is pytorch, but thats kind of unfair since it was acquired by Facebook not developed from scratch by them.
- tracker1 6y ago
  For me, the biggest is React... aside from that, not much really.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  Golang is pretty well liked. And Guava in Java land, and Abseil in C++. It's not too surprising that the stuff big companies make for their needs isn't as useful for small indie devs as stuff small indie devs make.

alibarber 6y ago

Sure, everything's a tradeoff - but sometimes I see things like that as frontloading the pain of when bndlrrr.io or whatever goes down in the middle of the night and your client is angry at you. But yeah, like everything in software, it's a spectrum and 'best practice' and the 'right way' are highly dependent on the context.

benhurmarcel 6y ago

https://xkcd.com/2347/ https://xkcd.com/2347/