9 ms·

But how do you avoid it in today's world? How do you actually build an app without a large code base?

by dhimes 13y ago

ufo 13y ago
The important things for writing modular code in a big codebase is defining clear interfaces and making "black box" modules. An important thing for this is abstract data types but, unlike what many people seem to say, those are not exclusive to OOP - you can also have abstract datatypes in procedural or functional languages. The core concept of OOP is adding dynamic method-based dispatching to your abstract data types but I would argue that while this is useful a lot of times, its not really fundamental. IN fact, there as many cases when dynamic dispatching will not be able to solve the problem on its oown: a good example is generics in Java and C# - parametric polymorphism helps enforce abstractions but isn't really object oriented.
oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
What is it about "today's world" that makes software require a larger code base? If anything, we have much higher-level languages which require far less code than in the olden days. Anyway, my point was more about the unix nature of building small programs, that do one thing well, and using those progams in combination.
- betterunix 13y ago
  "What is it about "today's world" that makes software require a larger code base?" The fact that we are still not using the high-level languages we have available to us. Vast amounts of new C, C++, and Java code are written each year. We are solving bigger problems, but we are using languages that are still catching up to the state-of-the-art of the 1970s.
- dhimes 13y ago
  * Anyway, my point was more about the unix nature of building small programs, that do one thing well, and using those programs in combination.* That just uses different words to describe the same net result and the same net problem. You still have to find a way to make all of those pieces work together to do something complex.
shitgoose 13y ago
You can start with realizing that your data (100k rows) does not require Oracle and can be stored in a flat file and loaded in memory, so you can ditch JPA. Then get rid of Spring and Jackson. Then you remove all Abstract Singleton Factories and leave just the code that does what user wants, not what developer wants. Then drop a couple of messaging frameworks that your using when you realize that now all the code fits in one app. Next thing you will see is that NanoHttpd will do just fine for your load level and therefore you can ditch WebLogic. After all that you can remove maven (blasphemy!!!) because your project shrunk to a few dozen files that can be compiled and packaged with 5 lines batch script. But that wouldn't be glamorous, would it? Besides, this approach will make you hopelessly unemployable in today's world.

But how do you avoid it in today's world? How do you actually build an app without a large code base?

by dhimes 13y ago

But how do you avoid it in today's world? How do you actually build an app without a large code base?

ufo 13y ago

The important things for writing modular code in a big codebase is defining clear interfaces and making "black box" modules. An important thing for this is abstract data types but, unlike what many people seem to say, those are not exclusive to OOP - you can also have abstract datatypes in procedural or functional languages. The core concept of OOP is adding dynamic method-based dispatching to your abstract data types but I would argue that while this is useful a lot of times, its not really fundamental. IN fact, there as many cases when dynamic dispatching will not be able to solve the problem on its oown: a good example is generics in Java and C# - parametric polymorphism helps enforce abstractions but isn't really object oriented.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago

What is it about "today's world" that makes software require a larger code base? If anything, we have much higher-level languages which require far less code than in the olden days. Anyway, my point was more about the unix nature of building small programs, that do one thing well, and using those progams in combination.

betterunix 13y ago
"What is it about "today's world" that makes software require a larger code base?" The fact that we are still not using the high-level languages we have available to us. Vast amounts of new C, C++, and Java code are written each year. We are solving bigger problems, but we are using languages that are still catching up to the state-of-the-art of the 1970s.
dhimes 13y ago
* Anyway, my point was more about the unix nature of building small programs, that do one thing well, and using those programs in combination.* That just uses different words to describe the same net result and the same net problem. You still have to find a way to make all of those pieces work together to do something complex.

shitgoose 13y ago

You can start with realizing that your data (100k rows) does not require Oracle and can be stored in a flat file and loaded in memory, so you can ditch JPA. Then get rid of Spring and Jackson. Then you remove all Abstract Singleton Factories and leave just the code that does what user wants, not what developer wants. Then drop a couple of messaging frameworks that your using when you realize that now all the code fits in one app. Next thing you will see is that NanoHttpd will do just fine for your load level and therefore you can ditch WebLogic. After all that you can remove maven (blasphemy!!!) because your project shrunk to a few dozen files that can be compiled and packaged with 5 lines batch script. But that wouldn't be glamorous, would it? Besides, this approach will make you hopelessly unemployable in today's world.