Original and simple

Http://blog.linjian.org/articles/original-and-simple/

Simple is a rule that must be followed by computer practitioners, especially software developers, because software systems do not have the constraints of physical laws and have unimaginable influence diffusion capabilities. Simplicity is related to the system size, old and new, but not proportional, and sometimes even orthogonal. Advanced means do not always weaken the reliability. Some technologies themselves serve to improve reliability, for example, digital communication can have better fault tolerance and anti-interference capabilities than analog communication with multi-layer inspection mechanisms. Many successful technologies seem to carry out huge implementations without violating the principles of simplicity. For example, one of the vitality of Internet systems is that they define simple and practical protocol stacks.

Sometimes we equate original means with reliable means, derived from the fear of unknown or unknown advanced means. Experienced analog circuit engineers can split an MP3 file and see several highly encapsulated integrated circuits. This does not mean that the parameters of the integrated circuit cannot be detected; software Version updates will inevitably introduce new bugs, but responsible developers will certainly fix known issues in earlier versions. If you cannot directly recognize it, you need to understand it through indirect means. Unless it is a production environment with special requirements on reliability, it should not reject the adoption of improvement suggestions because of fear of new problems. Sometimes we stick to the original means out of laziness. Accepting new things will always have the cost of learning, migration and integration, and the reliability of the system will inevitably fluctuate. If you are reluctant to handle the temporary troubles and stick to the rules, you must be prepared to take risks for the accumulation of problems. What we need is the "Laziness" of one of the excellent qualities of programmers, that is, "never cut firewood by mistake ".