Programming language failings [was Re: strangest systems I've sent email from]

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 29 April 2016 at 15:43, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
> I don't know what people do now.
>
The answer, apparently:

Step 1: Install package manager of choice.
Step 2: Create a blank project using the package manager and Framework
X (which is the "in" thing this week).
Step 3: Slap together two lines of code which are:
theThing.do();
theThing.show();
Step 4: Pray to every deity in existence no one changes anything in
the TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND dependencies of your blank file.
Step 4b: Shoot yourself in the head when someone "unpublishes" their
shitty eleven line implementation of the left pad function/algorithm
which promptly breaks your everything. No you didn't use it, but it's
somewhere inside your 28000 (yes, really, twenty-eight thousand,
that's not a typo) dependencies needed to work your blank
jspm/npm-based app template.
Step 5: Shoot yourself in the head again because "Dude! Like,
Framework X is soooo uncool right now. Everyone's using Framework Y!"
or Framework X completely changes everything in the way it functions.
Because Reasons™.


Seriously, here's a blog post about the relatively recent fact that
one person managed to break some of the "big name" JavaScript
frameworks/apps/whatever-the-shit-they're-called-now:
<http://www.haneycodes.net/npm-left-pad-have-we-forgotten-how-to-program/>
"Functions are not packages," the author states, and I agree fully.
This is considered a "package" in the JavaScript world of the npm
package manager:
return toString.call(arr) == '[object Array]';
Yes, one line. The "isArray" package, on which seventy-two (72) other
packages depend.

Best thing is there's people in the comments defending this kind of
insanity as "hiding complexity." If you can't write something as
simple as a left padding function yourself because it's too complex,
why in the name of all things holy should I let you even go near any
kind of software development?

</rant>

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.