Our Wheels Are Rounder
As web developers we are familiar with the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle of programming. Cut & paste is the bane of object-oriented programmers, and we will frequently hear the phrase “Don’t reinvent the wheel”. However, I typically find myself and other colleagues in the world of PHP doing just that. The plethora of actively developed PHP Frameworks are a fluid testament to this fact. So are other libraries – sajax/xajax/projax for PHP Ajax work, jQuery/Dojo/Prototype/Mootools for JavaScript, and the list goes on.
Sure, there are unique qualities and features that separate third-party libraries, but the principle overlap is what – 75%? 80%? So why do we do it? The answer may be pride. Or, as someone so excellently put it this past weekend, our answer to “Don’t reinvent the wheel” becomes “Our wheels are rounder”. Continue reading ‘Our Wheels Are Rounder’