Typing system vs. Java

[Alex Martelli]

"Courageous" <jkraska1 at san.rr.com> wrote in message
news:5k1nmts15l7nsio00bmht2gnp12tbuq3qn at 4ax.com...
    ...
> I believe that there is a sort of Occam's Razor of Coding, as it were,
> where given two different programs which execute identically, the one
> which is shorter, simpler, and easier to understand is the better
> program, notwithstanding any principles it may or may not adhere to.

Great insight, except I think you've forgotten "easier to test, modify,
refactor".  As user-stories change all the time, we need to be able
to change our programs -- that is were the simplicity & matter most,
actually -- and test to ensure our changes don't break things.


> Various different rules which have crept up over the years such as
> "don't use global variables," and "practice strong encapsulation,"
> and so forth are all only distractions and are useless to the degree
> that in any particular context they don't satisfy Sir Occam's relentless
> blade.

Except that they often promote ease of testing, modification and
refactoring.  That is what gives them value.


Alex