Simplicity and customization-important principles of Software Design

Computer users who have some knowledge about Linux know that Linux is a highly customizable operating system. Through LFS, I installed a Linux system on an IBM ThinkPad x30 notebook. It only takes 10 seconds to start the system, and the memory usage is only 15 MB. I found such a system, it can fully meet the requirements for Linux program development. In the development process, if you find something missing, I can add it again. In this way, I don't need to use huge releases such as RHEL and Debian. In fact, there are a lot of things that I don't need. A real programmer, it is better not to be overwhelmed by the tools or systems you use. You 'd better break the black box and see everything in it.

In contrast, Windows is almost non-customizable. Although Windows XP has been perfect in the eyes of many users, you must know that the user requirements are different. For example, many software designers may want windows in the office to only contain a development environment. Such an environment can make full use of computer hardware resources, so that programmers can be more concentrated, and of course, they can also get higher work efficiency. How to use a knife to kill chickens? More often, we need more intimate tools.

Let's take a look at the mainstream computers, where the memory is frequently larger than GB. Even if such a computer is used, many users complain slowly. Why? Many operating systems consume hundreds of MB of memory at startup. Today, the more terrible the software is, the hundreds of MB or even several GB of memory will be available for an installation package. Nowadays, many programmers are increasingly unaware of saving users' system resources, which is really not a manifestation of professional ethics.

No matter how computer technology develops, no matter how powerful our hardware platform is, software engineers should regard saving users' resources as a responsibility or virtue and keep the system simple. In addition, different users may always have different requirements for the software. While maintaining universality, general software should try its best to provide a customizable mechanism to make up for the difference.