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I need to build a house, what kind of hammer should I buy?
- diego 18y agoIf someone asked me that they need to build a website to promote X without giving any more details, I'd say try Blogger or Wordpress. It may be just what they need, why make a point about passion or drive if they want to build a simple website? If they want to do something more sophisticated, they will quickly find out the limitations and ask the right questions.
- maryrosecook 18y agoHammers and word processors have a much lesser legacy impact upon building and writing than software does upon making web sites and applications. If you choose wrong with the former, you can very easily change your mind and avoid having to redo anything. The same is definitely not true of the latter. There is a continuum between a basic tool and a medium. Hammers and word processors are basic tools. The basic tool of hacking is the word processor. A piece of software, or programming language, is much further along that continuum. A better simile for software and websites might be, "I want to construct a place for people to live. What kind of building should I design?"
- mdasen 18y agoBut if someone doesn't use (postgresql|mysql|appengine|lisp|python|rails|dojo|jquery|prototype|mac|linux|win) for their project, it will just die! ;-)
- stcredzero 18y agoA better metaphor would be "what should I make it out of?" You can build a house out of straw, sticks, bricks, or titanium. But these have different advantages, drawbacks, and costs. When it comes down to it, metaphors for software are almost always particularly flawed.
- staunch 18y ago> You can build a house out of straw, sticks, bricks, or titanium. But these have different advantages, drawbacks, and costs. Obviously the first two are susceptible to the huffing and puffing of wolves.
- stcredzero 18y agoYes, but they are cheaper and quicker to construct.