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by allendoerfer 3776 days ago
To me, this seems more like an argument for optimizing beyond your own stack. Don't kill your own dependencies.

Your app uses to much memory? Improve a dependency, you have now improved other peoples apps, too.

Your app uses to much dependencies in total? Try to get all your first-level dependencies to standardize on the best http-client. (Which he is partially doing with his post.)

Dependencies may have problems, but shared problems are better than problems only you have.
2 comments
sargas 3775 days ago
I agree 100% with this.

I used to bring in dependencies with the "don't reinvent the wheel" mentality. Then I realized how much trust I'm giving to the authors of all dependencies I pull in. Now I tend to do my best to understand the dependencies I bring so I can improve them if I can.

The only problem I find with this decision is when I make an improvement/fix a bug on a dependency, and the project is either inactive or the authors don't give a crap about your work.

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allendoerfer 3775 days ago 

    The only problem I find with this decision is when I make an improvement/fix a bug on a dependency, and the project is either inactive or the authors don't give a crap about your work.
True, but I think a temporary fork, which will eventually be merged back in, is still better than your own code with its own bugs.
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jononor 3773 days ago
If you try an fix a kib
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drunkenazi 3775 days ago
Couldn't agree more. I think the title is unreasonably one sided, and saying "be part of the solution" is equally one sided.

Dependencies are great for the reasons you specified, and I saw nothing in that article suggesting otherwise. The part that feels the worst to read is:

> Can I implement the required minimal functionality myself? Own it.

This is largely a judgement call; "can I" and "minimal functionality" are subject to change based on many external circumstances. "Own it" also seems to imply owning it not as a dependency, based on the context, but rather as a part of a monolithic whole.

It is also interesting that the sidekiq product makes use of gem dependencies. At top level 5 without platform dependencies, which (mostly due to rails) expands out to many more. The message should not be to "kill your dependencies", because that mindset is outdated and slow.

So tired of hearing about how bad dependencies or scripting languages are. Would be much more excited to hear about how to contribute to open source dependencies, and how to write efficient scripts.

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