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Timeline for Harmful temptations in programming

Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5

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Mar 19, 2011 at 21:23 comment added cthulhu This. I put the blame on the fact that creating pretty, generalized and re-usable code is very satisfying, especially if the problem itself isn't very challenging and/or is just a rehash of what you've done before. Case in point, generic CRUD database operations (UI, respond to user action, do something with a DB, thar).
Mar 17, 2011 at 12:34 history edited k3b CC BY-SA 2.5
added link to [Sin #1 - Premature Generalization](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericgu/archive/2006/08/03/687962.aspx)
Mar 12, 2011 at 23:14 comment added Statement I think I certainly fall into this category as I have recently discovered patterns. Pattern Fever, I think one of the books named it. I know it's bad writing needlessly complex code but the hard part is ignoring the fun of it. I guess what I really need to learn next is to assess when to generalize, or rather, force myself to calm down and think at the current needs and not run away and make every step extendable in every manner possible. :)
Mar 5, 2011 at 15:39 vote accept Dan
Feb 27, 2011 at 10:47 comment added Oscar Mederos Have you heard about YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It) Principle?
Feb 26, 2011 at 16:30 comment added Bill Leeper I find this to be the biggest fault of programmers. We as a group tend to think that we need an abstract class and make things infinitely flexible in version 1. Save that for when you actually need it. If you have good testing (another topic) you should be able to refactor at will.
Feb 25, 2011 at 12:27 comment added MarkJ +1 "A study of great designers found that they were all good at anticipating change" (Code Complete 2). It's good to be able to tell what sorts of change are likely. Then you can decide whether there's anything to be gained by solving the more general case early on - whether it would save time later. Sometimes it's not worth it, it would be just as easy to modify the code later.
Feb 25, 2011 at 8:43 comment added user1249 Oh, the joy of metafactoryfactories :(
Feb 24, 2011 at 18:19 comment added ozz I hate it when architecture astronauts do that!
S Feb 24, 2011 at 17:13 history answered John Bode CC BY-SA 2.5
S Feb 24, 2011 at 17:13 history made wiki Post Made Community Wiki