Re: Rewording the Design Principles: Pave the Cowpaths and Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Doug Schepers wrote:
> Embrace Redundancy
>     
>    Don't reject functionality just because it overlaps with existing
>    functionality.  Doing so runs the risk of limiting extensibility
>    and progress.  Let authors and users decide which of multiple
>    approaches to similar functionality works best for them.

It is interesting to compare this to design philosophies applied to other 
languages. Python has the design principle "There should be one—and preferably 
only one—obvious way to do it", whilst Perl has the motto "There's more than one 
way to do it". It may not be a coincidence that Python has a reputation for 
being easy to learn and its programs easy to maintain whilst Perl does not.

-- 
"Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end?"
  -- Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Received on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:10:51 UTC