[jongjong]

My coding philosophy is centered around simple interfaces. I think of power sockets and plugs. The simpler the socket/plug design, the easier it is to plug in. It's easier to connect a European plug which has 2 round pins than it is to connect a UK plug which has 3 rectangular pins at different angles. You can imagine how difficult it would be to connect a plug with 10 pins; it would be difficult to get the alignment right and you would have to push hard and fiddle quite a bit to get it all the way in.

If you can get a module to do the same thing with a simpler interface, then that's generally a better module; it's typically a sign of good separation of concerns. Complex interfaces are often a sign that the module encourages micromanagement of its internal state; a leaky abstraction.

A module should be trusted to do its job. The only reason a module would provide complex interfaces is to provide flexibility... But modules don't need to provide flexibility because the whole point of a module is that it can be easily replaced with other modules when requirements change.

[laumars]

The thing with electrical plus is that they should be designed around safety first, rather than convenience. And the U.K. plug is a lot more safety focused than many other plug standards.

The advantage of the U.K. plug is that live pins are physically blocked and only released when the Earth pin is present. This is why the Earth pin is slightly longer on U.K. plugs and why insulated devices have a plastic Earth pin rather than no pin at all. The advantage of this is so you cannot jam things into them (either accidentally or intentionally) without the Earth pin. Thus making the plug much safer.

I’ve found U.K. plugs to be much more secure inside the socket too. US plugs often come away from the wall when there is a little bit of weight or tension on the plug. U.K. plugs require a great deal more pressure to come loose from the socket.

If I were to bring this back to types I’d say one needs to evaluate what the requirements are: safety or convenience.

[mirekrusin]

When I was a kid before we had legos we had some soviet alternative called constructor or something. Everything was made from metal, crews etc. obviously as a kid one of the first “hello world” things you will build is “plug” that you can insert into those holes in the wall. My older brother was lucky when he did it as the fuse in the house went off. My younger brother did the same about a decade later but holding in his hand two metal pins. He was also lucky that my dad was just passing through corridor and pushed him out. He got away with just burned skin on the fingers and a bit of shock.

[fennecfoxy]

Sounds like a more dangerous version of meccano

[mirekrusin]

Yes, I think it's this [0]

[0] https://www.amazon.pl/Konstructor-Oryginalny-zestaw-konstruk...

[laumars]

Regular Meccano could played with this way too. Albeit I don't know if the pieces are shaped right to fit into a plug socket. But I'd wager that's more by accident than design

[kuschku]

And now try the Schuko, which improves on all metrics you named (except the polarity isn't fixed, that's its one theoretical disadvantage), but also significantly improves usability (you can plug it in either way, the plug goes in much easier, and it stays in with much more force)

[laumars]

It’s a good design but I disagree that it improves on all the safety features. For starts the child proof safety shutters are still only optional in some regions.

> except the polarity isn't fixed, that's its one theoretical disadvantage

Polarity isn’t fixed on any mains sockets. That’s why the A in AC stands for “alternating”

[wrycoder]

And yet there is a big difference between the hot and neutral conductors in a 120V outlet in the US. The neutral remains close to ground potential, and is actually bonded to earth at the breaker panel.

[laumars]

I’ll admit that my understanding of these things is rather superficial. I might understand more than the average person but that’s not exactly a high bar to set.

However I always understood potential to be different to polarity. And that AC (which, to my knowledge, all electric grids globally carry) is the literal oscillation of polarity. What am I missing/misunderstanding from the GPs post?

[kuschku]

English isn’t my native language, so I mixed up those two terms.

But that’s what I meant, the UK and US plugs (as well as switzerland I think?) theoretically have one pin always be hot, one always be neutral.

With Schuko, you can reverse the plug, and it'll still work, which is on the one hand awesome when you've got a tight space and want more plugs to fit, but can also require higher costs, as you've always got to switch both wires instead of just switching the hot one (although this is best practices everywhere, as you can never know how well the electrician followed specs when wiring your apartment 90 years ago).

[brabel]

I don't think the discussion really was about plugs.

[laumars]

Originally, no. But discussions evolved

[jongjong]

It's true that EU plugs of some devices can be a bit loose; especially 2-pin variants where the wall socket is not indented or the indent is taller than the plug.

[j1elo]

USB-C would be a nice looking single-argument function... but parameterized with every possible generic template meta-programming feature in the language.

[xcambar]

I love the socket/plug analogy.

It's even better than it looks in Europe: there are actuality 3 contact points but only 2 are salient which allows for 2 easily pluggable positions (rotate 180deg). The ground is positioned twice for that matter.

Only France has a variation around that to my knowledge, that is still compatible across Europe.

And no one notices and just plugs in and out without thinking twice about it.

There are some unsung heroes here.

[afiori]

The EU has a huge variety of plugs and sockets, what people often call the EU plug are variation of the schuko[0] design. The standard EU plug is the Europlug[1] which is compatible with most (but not all) sockets in Europe and only handles low amperage.

AFAIK Italy is the major outlier in having widespread sockets[2] that do not accept the Europlug

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#Ita... the one on the left, rated for 16A.

[lock-the-spock]

A tiny bit more complex: the German/European plug has the ground at the sides and so goes in both ways. The French/Belgian plug has instead a ground pin that goes from the socket into the plug (so the opposite of the other two). That means generally you'll be able to combine both and most products have a plug that allows to connect to both varieties. But there are some (especially Chinese and American) products which miss this diversity and either only fit in one of the two or produce local varieties for either one when it would well be feasible to produce a single version that fits both.

[irjustin]

> It's easier to connect a European plug which has 2 round pins than it is to connect a UK plug which has 3 rectangular pins at different angles.

Speaking strictly on plugs - while I agree it is simpler/easier - I disagree that EU plug is better.

For the bulk and lack of directionality - significantly safer (pin lengths, shielded to tip), requires a ground pin even if dummy, carries 13A easy!

The safety aspects are incredible[0]. I do not worry about my small children at all.

Lived in HK where the EU (China) and UK (HK) are pretty common in one household.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q

[29athrowaway]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baY3SaIhfl0