The framework shouldn’t wag the app
The app should wag the framework. Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster wrote yesterday about how, when given the Core Data framework’s “free” undo, he ended up doing contortions to make the feature work for him:
Well, I have undo in Delicious Library 1. It’s not “magic” like with CoreData, but it works. In fact, now that I am thinking about it — I’ve spent months and hundreds of lines of code trying to get CoreData’s “magic” undo to work, when, in fact, there are really only FOUR actions that are ever undone.
I’m not sure what happens more often: people not letting a framework do what it could easily do, or people forcing a framework to do something that would be easier done by hand. Don’t peel your potatoes with a knife, but don’t peel your pineapples with a potato peeler. Actually, you should try that.
Dec 19 2007
11:48 pm
I’m giving this article a “C”.
The cool draw-me-in title is there, but the content is lacking. One (short) example, one (short) observation, and one (short) mixed-metaphor.
Also, the pineapple-potato-peeler experiment failed miserably, and now I’m covered in sticky, sticky juice.
I expect more from you, Allen!
Dec 20 2007
2:11 am
Thanks for the constructive criticism! If only I got more of that.
I would say my mistake was saying too much about the link without actually having additional insightfulness to add. I just think he highlights a vital lesson, and felt like I should help highlight it. What I should have done is kept my comments brief, making its purpose as a link obvious rather than making it seem like, as you called it, an “article”.