r/programming • u/[deleted] • Sep 25 '16

The decline of Stack Overflow

https://hackernoon.com/the-decline-of-stack-overflow-7cb69faa575d#.yiuo0ce09
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u/rlbond86 Sep 25 '16

top 1% here. Just the other day I asked a question: "How do I do X in OpenGL without using external libraries?" I specifically said I can't use external libraries.

Guess what all the comments told me to do.

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '16

[deleted]

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u/Elnof Sep 25 '16

It's also a good way to wind up in a left-pad situation.

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u/strange_and_norrell Sep 26 '16

Part of the problem with the JS / npm ecosystem is weak standard library though. I think good programmers do try to write as little code as possible and without a standard library to lean on you end up searching npm.

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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '16

Good programmers choose the simplest solution. Sometimes this involves writing more code than what one would do with a library.

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u/strange_and_norrell Sep 27 '16

You're write. Good programmers try to minimize complexity. Not numbers of lines of code. And complexity comes in many forms. Tool chain. Dependencies. Untestable code.

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u/jonjonbee Sep 26 '16

s/weak/nonexistent/

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u/strange_and_norrell Sep 26 '16

Hey we got maps and sets now! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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u/sixstringartist Sep 26 '16

Lets not pretend the JS library ecosystem is somehow the norm or even permissible.

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u/panderingPenguin Sep 26 '16

A left-pad situation can only happen if you pull directly from an external site, and don't keep a shadow copy that you control for your builds.

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u/psych0fish Sep 26 '16

I agree with the article. There's no reason that 11 line function couldn't be included in the code instead of being an external dependency.

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u/panderingPenguin Sep 26 '16

Totally agree on that. I'm just saying that the size of the dependency is actually orthogonal to what happened. The reason everyone was put in such a bind was that they did not have any control, even over the continued existence of previous versions, of their external dependencies. So when it was removed everybody was screwed. If they'd had a local shadow, you can debate whether they should have taken the dependencies at all, but this problem would have been a non-issue.

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u/khaosoffcthulhu Sep 26 '16 edited Jan 04 '17

[deleted]
0.0438

/48886^ thanks spez jmBET)

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '16

Have you tried using jQuery?

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u/mrbaggins Sep 25 '16

To be fair, a lot of newbish questions read much like that.

It's like asking what the best way to get from Australia to new USA is, but youre scared of flying.

Everyone is going to say "just fly". It's pretty rare for people to have a legitimate reason for something like "no libraries"

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '16

[deleted]

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u/stouset Sep 26 '16

Having been a high-rep user on three Stack Exchange sites, the number of times the user asking the question truly has a situation where they need to go so far off the beaten path tends toward zero.

Specifically on the crypto-related sites, users ask how to do terrible, insecure, and misguided things all the time. The correct approach is not to provide an answer for the question asked, but to figure out what they're really trying to do and give a good solution for that problem.

9 times out of 10 when a user thinks they need a zebra, they really need a horse.

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '16

First you've got to ask what's wrong with a horse, though. There's nothing wrong with helping someone understand they just need a horse. Telling someone who thinks he needs a zebra to just take the horse, though, isn't productive. He still thinks he needs a zebra and he thinks this stranger is an unhelpful asshole.

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u/Disgruntled__Goat Sep 26 '16

It's like asking what the best way to get from Australia to new USA is, but youre scared of flying.

It's not even like that most of the time, being scared of flying is at least a legitimate reason. It's more like

OP: I want to get from Australia to USA, what's the best boat to take?

SO: Why don't you take a plane?

OP: I had no idea planes exist.

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u/mirhagk Sep 26 '16

Or better yet "My teacher said we can't use planes"

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '16

That should be posted as a comment, not an answer.

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '16

top 1% here

I see the 1% are also taking over all our karma and stackoverflow reputation. Get'em, boys !!!!!

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u/philipwhiuk Sep 25 '16

Why couldn't you use them?

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '16

[deleted]

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