Wednesday, 13 February 2013
baked byRebecca Murphey
We programmers like our if/else statements: If this is true, then do this; otherwise, do this. Indeed, I think part of what I like about programming is that it makes it seem possible to express complex processes as a set of rules.
This tidy approach fails us, though, when we can’t express a decision in terms of a series of booleans that, when ANDed and ORed appropriately, lead us to the Right Decision. Backbone or Ember? SASS or plain CSS? Rails or Node? Progressively enhance or HTML that’s nothing but some scripts and an empty
<body>tag? False dichotomies, every one of them, and plenty more that you’ll see argued to death with facts and figures and passion.Rarely are real-world decisions as straightforward as a simple if/else statement. Details, nuances, constraints… they all matter. The ability to see the big picture, to understand that there is no One True Way, and to use the judgment that comes with experience — that’s what makes for a truly good developer.