The Underscore Archives

On 23 Dec 2009, at 12:00, Paddy Uglow wrote:

>> i've had to put in nasty hacks because I can't get at the
>> templates or other files I need to do soemthing the "right" way
> A perfect example of what I mean about how code starts to bloat, and  
> why I'm
> always a bit reluctant to use "ready-made solutions" except when I'm  
> forced
> to through inability to write them myself (not uncommon! If only I  
> could
> write my own tinymce equivalent...)

The problem with hand-rolled solutions is that often they turn out to  
be hard for others to maintain. As with Rick's code example the other  
day, it's better to have bloated but commonly-understood code than  
tight but hard for others to read at a glance code. I think this is  
partly why frameworks work really well: not only does it save you the  
effort of all the usual drudgery, but it means anyone with a general  
knowledge of frameworks can maintain or update the site.

Also, say what you like about Drupal html bloat, but I've found that  
if you ever look at a page and think "oo, where did that box/sentence/ 
widget come from?" one glance at the classes of the containing divs  
will reveal it: "ah, it's the title of the block part of view 2."  
Saves quite a lot of trawling through code to change something.

Bloat is not always bad. Everything in moderation.

Oliver.