Re: I've been lazy
On 15.07.2011 18:38, Ross wrote:
Fundamentally the program I'm writing is an experimental program,
rather than a commercial product. Hence, my primary aim is to get a
working version of it that I can release to people, and see if they
like using it. If it's a hit, then it's reasonable to start rewriting
bits of it to make them more elegant under the hood. Otherwise, if the
end user can't see it, it's not a high priority. It took me part of a
day to write the client/server code, so almost any amount of learning
curve for things I haven't used in a while (e.g. RMI) would have meant
that it took longer to get that functionality working.
I'm reminded of the old programming maxim "Make it work first, then
make it work fast". At the moment, I'll make it work at all, then make
it more elegant under the hood. Fundamentally, I *need* people using
it.
It is not too unlikely that the architecture of an experimental program
does not fit real usage needs - especially if you provide it as a public
service which can be hit by arbitrary many clients. In those cases it's
not enough to "start rewriting bits of it" but you need to rearchitect
it which often means a major effort.
Experience shows that code that exists has a certain - err ductility? -
which keeps it hanging around longer than you may want.
If you are afraid of the learning curve you could at least replace your
custom format (which we do not know) with something like JSON which is
pretty short yet allows for arbitrary structured data much like the
verbose XML. That will give you flexibility and avoid having to fiddle
with the details of parsing.
Kind regards
robert
--
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/