Programming Tips #6 “Make it Simple”

December 6th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

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Next up on my programming tips series we have another guest post. This one is written by Georgi Momchilov.

“Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler” ( quote from Einstein ).

Think of your application as a living organism - it is made of many small components each of which has a specific task to deal with and when they all work together, the creature will breath and move.

Don’t expect that a simple cell ( component ) can protect you from disease ( malicious attacks ) and memorize ( save to data-storage ).

Build the application from bottom to top like a house. Use the base to built the rooms on top of and finally put the roof.

The metaphors are intentional - the more links to reality your code has, the more readable, understandable and extendable it is.

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If you have any programming tips that you would like to share with my readers please send them in via my contact form. I will be picking a ‘best tip’ which will be rewarded with a license for Zend Studio Professional.

There Are 6 Responses So Far. »

  1. Trackback by PHPDeveloper.org on 6 December 2007:

    Nick Halstead’s Blog: Programming Tips #6 …

    Nick Halstead has shared tip number six in his “Programming Tips” ……

  2. Pingback by developercast.com » Nick Halstead’s Blog: Programming Tips #6 on 6 December 2007:

    […] Halstead has shared tip number six in his “Programming Tips” series. This one focuses on keeping things simple. Next up […]

  3. Comment by Paul on 7 December 2007:

    Sorry but how about some more advanced tips?? Every blog (not just here) I seem to read just repeats the basic “name your variables properly”/”comment your code”..

    Not knocking what you people are doing but…

  4. Comment by Georgi Momchilov on 7 December 2007:

    Well, I guess there are no universal advanced tips - if you stick to the simple ones, the permutations of making good software are endless.

  5. Comment by Paul on 10 December 2007:

    Understandable, I guess I’m just looking for better ways to do things but the more advanced you get, the more specific you have to be..

  6. Comment by gerard on 12 December 2007:

    I have always considered rules like DRY (Programming Tip #1) and KISS (this tip, I suppose) somewhat contradict each other, though both are important. Let me explain. Whenever you set out upon a task, the simplest method that gets the job done is usually NOT the most elegant or flexible. It’s usually a big long line of logic. But it works, and it works well. Then, if you have to solve the same problem, or a similar problem, you start adapting it, so you don’t have to repeat yourself.

    I guess I’m trying to say that I like to combine the rules: “Keep it simple, until you can’t keep it simple any longer.” And its corollary: “If it starts being painful, then something’s wrong.”

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