Step 72: Reinvent the Wheel Often~ Jason P Sage

This is the 72nd Step towards gaining the Programming Enlightenment series. If you didn’t learn the 71st Step, read it.

What is REINVENT THE WHEEL?

“To Reinvent the wheel is to duplicate a basic method that has already previously been created or optimized by others.” ~ Wiki

Pic source

So, why reinvent the wheel?

When we think we want to get intimate knowledge of the inner workings of various components that already exist. Many software components like memory management, double-linked lists, dynamic array, ODBC, multi-threading are like black boxes that just work. Understanding the usage of these components aren’t enough to reveal the hidden dangers and benefit beneath.

Reinventing the wheel, if done properly, can be useful. Unless you plan on learning more about wheels, that is. In addition, we can have complete control over the software, which is sometimes essential.

TL;DR We should try to reinvent the wheel to acquire knowledge how already available things work out-of-box.

Go to the series.

97 Journey Every Programmer should Accomplish

Go to 71st Step

Step 71: Read the Humanities~ Keith Braithwaite

Go to the 73rd path .

Step 73: Resist the Temptation of the Singleton Pattern~ Sam Saariste

References:

• 97 things Every Programmer Should Know ~ Git Book
• 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know ~ Paperback
• Is reinventing the wheel really all that bad? ~ Stack
• What is Reinventing the wheel? ~ Wiki
• Don’t reinvent the wheel, unless you plan on learning more about wheels ~ codinghorror.com