Friday, August 24, 2018

Word of the Day: DRY principle

Word of the Day WhatIs.com
Daily updates on the latest technology terms | August 24, 2018
DRY principle

The DRY (don't repeat yourself) principle is a best practice in software development that recommends software engineers do something once, and only once. The concept, which is often credited to Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, authors of "The Pragmatic Programmer," is the tongue-in-cheek opposite of the WET principle, which stands for "write everything twice."

The DRY principle encourages developers to think about how to improve the maintainability of code during all phases of its lifecycle. When the principle has been followed, a software developer is able to change code in one place and have the change automatically applied to every instance of the code in question.

 

According to the DRY principle, every discrete chunk of knowledge should have one unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system. The goal of the DRY principle is to lower technical debt by eliminating redundancies in process and logic whenever possible.

 

Redundancies in process

To prevent redundancies in processes (actions required to achieve a result), followers of the DRY principle seek to ensure that there is only one way to complete a particular process. Automating the steps wherever possible also reduces redundancy, as well as the number of actions required to complete a task.

 

Redundancies in logic

To prevent redundancies in logic (code), followers of the DRY principle use abstraction to minimize repetition. Abstraction is the process of removing characteristics until only the most essential characteristics remain.

Quote of the Day

 

"Most often, technical debt occurs in iterative application development environments when speed of release is valued more than high quality." -- Jan Stafford

Learning Center

 

Five ways to reduce technical debt, rework costs in Agile, DevOps
Need to lower the cost of software development? Here are 5 steps to reduce technical debt.

 

Chaos engineering unearths IT deployments' dark debt
Technical debt is what you fix in the future -- it's measurable and visible. Dark debt is only expressed through failure.

Security debt: Why you should pay attention
What's the biggest risk companies face as they accumulate security debt?

A comprehensive beginner's guide to DevOps for developers
The thought of diving into DevOps can be intimidating, particularly for beginners. Cameron McKenzie offers first-time advice on DevOps for developers.

Technical debt is not scary if you invest it well
Is the prospect of acquiring technical debt disturbing? Technical debt doesn't have to be scary as long as you are smart in acquiring it.

Geek and Poke

 


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