The Problem with Edge-Case First Library Development in Software Ecosystems
By
PaulHoule
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
The article critiques the trend in software development where libraries are built to handle edge cases first, leading to bloated dependency trees and over-engineering. The author argues that this approach creates unnecessarily complex and granular libraries for scenarios that developers rarely encounter in practice, and suggests the community should work to trim away this excess complexity.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledI think we've ended up with many libraries in our ecosystem which are edge-case-first, the opposite to what I'd expect.
I believe a lot of the questionably small libraries hiding in our deep dependency trees are a result of over-engineering for inputs and edge cases we've probably never seen.
The problem is that we're building for hypothetical scenarios rather than actual common use cases.
We need to start trimming away some of this excess complexity and focus on what developers actually need.
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