4 ms·

Whilst I absolutely agree that writing code fast enough isn't the bottleneck, it's always nice to have tools that reduce repeat code writing. I use the React p

• ImprobableTruth 5y ago
  To me that - and really any form of common boilerplate - is just evidence that we're lacking abstractions. If your editor is generating code for you, that means that the 'real' programming language you're using 'in your head' has some metaprogramming facilities emulated by your IDE. I think we should strive to improve our programming languages to make less of this boilerplate necessary, not to make generating boiler plate easier. The latter is just going to make software less and less wieldy. Imagine the horror if instead of (relatively) higher level programming languages like C we were all just using assembly with code generation.
  • kemitchell 5y ago
    In a very real sense, we are all just using assembly with code generation. I really like your point on symptoms of insufficient abstraction. I do worry that we always see abstraction as belonging in language. Which in turn we treat as a precious singleton, and fight about. At least in my own hacking, I'm surprised how infrequently I see programmers write programs that write programs. I'm surprised how infrequently I see programmers programming their shell, editor, or IDE.
  • catlifeonmars 5y ago
    I’ve read this argument before and I don’t buy it. Boilerplate is an emergent property of composable abstractions.