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The Developer's Code
book

The Developer's Code

by Ka Wai Cheung
February 2012
Beginner to intermediate
250 pages
3h 41m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from The Developer's Code
Essay 26 Sniff Out Bad Complexity

Bad complexity is complexity that just doesn’t have to be there.

That’s not always easy to spot. Sometimes even the pieces we think have to be there really don’t. This happened even to Thomas Jefferson.

In 1776, Jefferson sat on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. The committee gave him the privilege of writing the first draft. When the draft was completed, he sent it to his friend, Benjamin Franklin, for review. Franklin returned the draft with much of Jefferson’s clever language erased.

Jefferson was none too happy, but Franklin tried to convince his friend why this was for the better. Franklin told him this story:

When I was a journeyman printer, one of my companions, an apprentice ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781941222904Errata