Programming Obesity: A Code Health Epidemic by Aaron W Hsu #FnConf19

Aaron W Hsu argues against the growing complexity and bloat in modern software, advocating for simpler, more predictable code.

Programs are getting fat. They're becoming slow. They're taking up more computing resources. They're getting harder to maintain and more complex from the ground up. Layer upon layer of sophistication is causing us to lose our ability to predict what software will do. Where's that bug? Why is everything going so slowly? Am I even using the right data structures? Where's that important point in the documentation again? What's happened to us? In this meta-dive into the nature of our approach to programming, we will explore some of the dangers of our current approaches to programming and the how/why of our current programming obesity problem. We will look at real case studies and see just how bad the situation can be. But we will also explore how we can battle these sources of obesity. In this passionate plea for code that we can gain control over again, we will look at examples of how we can return to a state of high-performance on all levels, from code size to code scalability. We will look at the principles that can help us to reach leaner, more efficient, more usable, less buggy code. We will hopefully find some light at the end of the tunnel, and how we can change our outlook on programming to push ourselves towards code that benefits not only ourselves, but also those that will come after us. More details: confengine.com/functional-conf-2019/proposal/12362 Conference Link: functionalconf.com