Practitioner Makes Imperfect

I love listening to people who know and care about something and can communicate both that knowledge and emotion in an accessible way, without patronising and without compromising the message.

In the tweetstream GeePaw Hill Riffs on MVC, Dave Rooney captures Michael D. Hill talking about the Model-View-Controller pattern for system architecture but also about the dangers of rigid adherence to such things and how expertise and experience will build on and blur and bend any theory to suit the context.

One extract:

[Experienced developers] have ... seen enough solution-variety to realize 3 key insights.

first, "there's no one way". or if there is we don't have it. that's key because it frees the mind.

second, "code tells you". that is, the code is the best & most direct expression of the design, and as such reveals its merit or lack.

third, "it never ends." code is never done, always in progress, always *changing*. we build code knowing this, working in a certain way.

that certain way involves a whole huge variety of techniques & concepts, but it starts with "prevent hard shots" & "know it's working".

so when i say this might be MVC-ish, all i really am talking about is keeping an eye out for certain things.

Image: https://flic.kr/p/4ds1M5

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