Have we forgotten how to code?

A reflection on the current state of software development.

A little background

A couple of months back, I came across this blog post by David Haney. Although he published it in 2016, the main idea is still relevant today. Have we forgotten how to code? A simple question, but with a complex answer. What has changed in the last few years that has made software development more complex? Or has it gotten simpler? Why is creating a simple web application so complicated now whereas creating something much more complex has become easier? Let's take a look at one exhibit to get started.

Exhibit A: The left-pad incident

Here's a little refresher for those who forgot or never heard about it. In March 2016, Azer Koçulu after a dispute with Kik Interactive, unpublished all his modules from npm, including the popular left-pad module. This caused a lot of builds to fail as many projects depended on this module. When I first read about this, I found it hilarious. How can a single module break the internet? A little deeper research about the incident answered a lot of questions, whilst raising a lot more at the same time. Taken straight from the blog post and the npm repository, here is the code for left-pad:

module.exports = leftpad;
function leftpad (str, len, ch) {
  str = String(str);
  var i = -1;
  if (!ch && ch !== 0) ch = ' ';
  len = len - str.length;
  while (++i < len) {
    str = ch + str;
  }
  return str;
}

Astonishingly simple, isn't it? Here is a simpler version:

function leftpad(str, len, ch = ' ') {
return ch.repeat(len - String(str).length) + str;
}

As bad of a rep Javascript gets, the above code is fairly simple to not only understand, but also to implement. It also performs faster. You know what? What if I tell you, Javascript has a built-in function called padStart that does the exact same thing, starting from, ES2017. Here is the code for padStart:

'abc'.padStart(10);         // "       abc"
'abc'.padStart(10, "foo");   // "foofoofabc"

So what does this have anything to do with not being able to code? Well, it has nothing to do with it tbh. But it does raise a question: At what point did someone get so lazy that they decided to create a massive library and did not bother to write a simple function like left-pad? Was it actually laziness? Or was it just a lack of knowledge? Or was it something else? No one knows for sure. But it does make you wonder, doesn't it? Let's rule out the lack of knowledge for now. Let's say it was laziness. But then again, why would someone be lazy enough to not write a simple function? Maybe it was just a lack of time. But then again, how long does it take to write a function like left-pad? A couple of minutes? Maybe an hour? Keep a note of this question, we will come back to it later.

The Present and The Future

Snap back to the current day. We have thousands and thousands of libraries and frameworks to choose from. We also have libraries and frameworks for those libraries and frameworks. We have tools that generate code for us and tools that generate the content to test that code. Don't get me wrong, all of this is great. It has made it so much easier, faster and enjoyable to write code. But it also has implications that we need to consider. We have so many new people trying to get into software development. They are overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools and libraries available. They are confused about what to learn and what not to learn. They are scared of not being able to keep up with the pace of the industry. They are scared of wasting time learning something that might not be relevant in a few months, let alone a few years. And this gap is only going to get wider. This makes it so much more difficult for people to start building something. And this is where the problem lies.

The Problem

The problem is that we are pushing so much new stuff every single day, that we are unable to retain even a fraction of it. The sheer amount of work to be done in order to keep up with these tools and frameworks is overwhelming. This is not a problem of the present, but has been developing for a long time. We have forgotten how to code. We are focussed more on keeping up and meeting the demand and requirements. Times have changed. Nobody can be blamed for this. It's just the way things are. People beginning their careers are expected to know so much more than what was expected a few years back. Who has the time to learn the basics when you have to learn the latest and greatest? To think that someone who has created a massive library that will be used by millions of users every day, did not know how to write left-pad will be a little unjust. But it did happen. And it will happen again. And again.

What to expect?

Well it is not a surprise that Software Development is going to get more complex. It is also not a surprise that the market is going to get more competitive. The only thing that we can do is to keep up with the pace. But at what cost? We are already seeing the effects of this. People are burning out faster than ever. People are leaving the industry. People are getting fired for not being able to keep up. Amidst all this, people are not learning. College curriculums have been shamed for not teaching the latest developments in the industry. And I agree with it. But something that these outdated curriculums do teach is the basics. Learning to code is not all about building complex projects. It is about how things work. It is about why things work the way they do.

My thoughts

Now to end this abomination of a read, I'd like to share my 2 cents. I am not saying that we should stop learning the latest developments, the latest technology and the latest tools. Rather, we should focus on the fundamentals. What more does an average newcomer know about some popular tool like Next.js other than the fact that it is a framework for React and is used for Server Side Rendering? Not much. But yet they must learn it. The passion of learning has been overtaken by the fear of not being able to keep up. And this is not something that is wrong. The fear is real. Not because some influencer said so, but because we can see it happening.

This is what I meant when I said we have forgotten how to code. We have forgotten how to learn. We have forgotten how to teach. And this needs to be fixed. How? I don't know. But it is going to require a lot of effort and patience.

As Amelia Earhart said:

... the process is its own reward.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have the day you deserve.