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I don’t understand the problem people have with pointers, they are an amazing tool. And the negative attitude towards manual memory allocation just seems like l

by gswdh 4y ago

I don’t understand the problem people have with pointers, they are an amazing tool. And the negative attitude towards manual memory allocation just seems like laziness to me and even suggests a lack of understanding for both what you’re doing and how computers work.

lanstin 4y ago
Laziness is one of the cardinal virtues of a programmer.
- cutler 4y ago
  The others being Impatience and Hubris.
- linkdd 4y ago
  There is good laziness: - Don't Repeat Yourself - Don't Reinvent the Wheel - ... And bad laziness: - I don't want to do this because I need to be careful - I don't need/want to understand what's going on as long as it works - ... The latter is what leads to most issues/bugs.
  - devnonymous 4y ago
    I wouldn't cast 'I don't want to do this because I need to be careful' as laziness, it's just being smart/pragmatic. Take that statement in the context of home grown cryptography instead of pointes and it'll make sense. People might have different thresholds for the need to be careful. Also, with regards to 'I don't need/want to understand what's going on as long as it works' ...isn't not needing to understand the implementation the entire point of creating abstractions?
  - psychoslave 4y ago
    > I don't want to do this because I need to be careful The topic here is more about: how reliable is the worst version of the weakest part of your team on this particular development tool? People life can be filled with terrible events that will have side effect on their vigilance at work. And even just counting on the catastrophe that just happened in production, pressure can make you trade scrupulosity for immediate operational efficiency. I prefer tools that help me to reduce cognitive load.
markusde 4y ago
They're a good tool for sure, but I take issue with your characterization. It's not "laziness" or "lack of understanding" that makes them ill-suited for python, but just that they're too expressive for the goals python seeks to fulfill. I suspect that people's aversion to manual memory management is more an expression of that semantic mismatch rather than some kind of reveling in their own stupidity.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

by gswdh 4y ago

lanstin 4y ago

Laziness is one of the cardinal virtues of a programmer.

cutler 4y ago
The others being Impatience and Hubris.
linkdd 4y ago
There is good laziness: - Don't Repeat Yourself - Don't Reinvent the Wheel - ... And bad laziness: - I don't want to do this because I need to be careful - I don't need/want to understand what's going on as long as it works - ... The latter is what leads to most issues/bugs.
- devnonymous 4y ago
  I wouldn't cast 'I don't want to do this because I need to be careful' as laziness, it's just being smart/pragmatic. Take that statement in the context of home grown cryptography instead of pointes and it'll make sense. People might have different thresholds for the need to be careful. Also, with regards to 'I don't need/want to understand what's going on as long as it works' ...isn't not needing to understand the implementation the entire point of creating abstractions?
- psychoslave 4y ago
  > I don't want to do this because I need to be careful The topic here is more about: how reliable is the worst version of the weakest part of your team on this particular development tool? People life can be filled with terrible events that will have side effect on their vigilance at work. And even just counting on the catastrophe that just happened in production, pressure can make you trade scrupulosity for immediate operational efficiency. I prefer tools that help me to reduce cognitive load.

markusde 4y ago

They're a good tool for sure, but I take issue with your characterization. It's not "laziness" or "lack of understanding" that makes them ill-suited for python, but just that they're too expressive for the goals python seeks to fulfill. I suspect that people's aversion to manual memory management is more an expression of that semantic mismatch rather than some kind of reveling in their own stupidity.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]