class: middle, center background-image: url(public/images/space1.jpg)  </br> --  --                  --- class: middle, center background-image: url(public/images/spaceturtle1.jpg) --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, left ## `> typeof universe` ## `'recursive space turtles'` ## `> universe instanceof RecursiveSpaceTurtles` ## `'who's to say really?'` --- class: middle, center # hi my name is @ag_dubs --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, left # `npm install` # `ag_dubs` --- class: left, middle # `npm install` # `a-brief-history` --- class: middle, center # bit.ly/nordic_dubs ## https://github.com/ashleygwilliams/a-brief-history --- class: middle, center # i like to think about thinking -- # especially the type of thinking that happens when people write code --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # teaching is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center background-color: #2A303C  # @node_together --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # how do you decide what goes in a module? --- class: middle, center  ##### https://twitter.com/ag_dubs/status/771032375031697414 --- class: middle, center   --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center   --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center   --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # modularity seemed, as both concept and physical reality, similar to time --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space2.jpg) # our picture of the universe .turtle[] --- class: middle, center <iframe width="700" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/99u3AwgA1AA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> #### https://anvaka.github.io/allnpmviz3d/ --- class: middle, center  ##### http://npmjs.com. Accessed 7 September 2016. --- class: middle, center  ##### http://modulecounts.com. Accessed 7 September 2016. --- class: middle, center # npm is the LARGEST MODULE REPOSITORY IN THE WORLD. -- ## .highlight[but why?] --- class: middle, center # why so many modules? --- class: middle, center # `require('dijkstra');`  --- class: middle, left > The programmer is in the unique position... They have > to be able to think in terms of conceptual hierarchies that are much deeper than a single mind ever > needed to face before... the automatic computer confronts us > with a radically new intellectual challenge that has no precedent in our history. ### Edsgar Dijkstra ##### On the cruelty of really teaching computing science, EWD1036-0. --- class: middle, center # modularity is a way of addressing this challenge --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space4.jpg) # what is modularity? .turtle[] --- class: middle, left > Modular programming is a software design technique that > emphasizes separating the functionality of a program into > independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains > everything necessary to execute only .highlight[one aspect of the desired] > .highlight[functionality.] ##### Modular Programming. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_programming. Accessed 9 May 2016. --- class: middle, center # "one aspect" --- class: middle, center # small modules philosophy --- class: middle, left > It's all about containing complexity... By making small focused modules you can > easily build large complex systems without having to know every single detail of > how everything works. Our short term memory is finite. ### Sindre Sorhus ##### https://github.com/sindresorhus/ama/issues/10#issuecomment-117766328 --- class: middle, center # how small is too small? --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # did we forget to program when we stopped writing C? -- # ... or when we stopped writing assembly? -- # ... or when we stopped doing electrical engineering? --- class: center, middle # no true programmer! --- class: center, middle # no true scotsman! --- class: center, middle # no true programmer -- class: center .no[] --- class: middle, left > When applications are done well, they are just the really application-specific, > brackish residue that can't be so easily abstracted away. All the nice, reusable > components sublimate away onto github and npm where everybody can collaborate to advance the commons. ### substack ##### http://substack.net/how_I_write_modules --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # commons are Hard... --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # `require('gall');`   --- class: middle, left > A complex system that works is invariably found to have > .highlight[evovled from a simple system that worked]. A complex system > designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up > to make it work. You have to start over with a simple system. ### John Gall --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space13.jpg) # what is simplicity?  --- class: center, middle  ##### Rich Hickey, "Simple, Made Easy" http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy Strangeloop 2011 --- class: center, middle # what is information? --- class: center, middle # `require('cesar');`  --- class: center, middle  --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space17.jpg) # why can order in the universe deteriorate even as it grows on Earth? --- class: middle, left > Information is not a thing; rather it is the arrangement of physical things. > It is *physical order*, like what distinguishes different shuffles of a deck > of cards. What is surprising to most people, however, is that information is > meaningless. --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space17.jpg) # it's not what the modules contain # it's how we put them together --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space18.jpg) # the trouble with modularity .turtle[] --- class: middle, left > The more I modularize my code. The bigger it gets. ### Nolan Lawson ##### "The cost of small modules". Read the Tea Leaves. 15 August 2016. --- class: middle, left > Over 400ms is being spent simply walking the Browserify tree. ### Sam Saccone ##### "The cost of small modules". Read the Tea Leaves. 15 August 2016. --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, left # How many modules are in a typical web application? - ## requirebin.com: 91 modules - ## keybase.io: 365 modules - ## m.reddit.com: 1050 modules - ## Apple.com: 1060 modules ##### https://nolanlawson.com/2016/08/15/the-cost-of-small-modules/ --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # it's not the size of the modules, it's the sheer number of them --- class: middle, left > Yes, small modules are easier to write. Yes, they’re easier to test. Yes, it’s easier to adhere to semver. These are all things that make your life as a library author easier. As we’ve seen, they come at a cost for others. ### Rich Harris ##### https://medium.com/@Rich_Harris/small-modules-it-s-not-quite-that-simple-3ca532d65de4#.9qtsjcmd6 --- class: top, left # the small modules philosophy: -- - # benefits the library writers -- - # disadvantages application writes -- - # harms end users --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space23.jpg) # how did we end up here? --- class: middle, center # `require('kuhn');`  --- class: middle, left > Scientists work from models acquired through > education and through subsequent exposure to > the literature often .highlight[without quite knowing or] > .highlight[needing to know what characteristics have] > .highlight[given these models the status of community] > .highlight[paradigms.] ### Thomas Kuhn ##### Kuhn, Thomas. "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", pg 46 (1962) --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # `require('ceejbot');`  --- class: middle, left > Your monolith is complex. > A split system is .highlight[more complex]. ### CJ Silverio --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # `require('hickey');`  --- class: middle, left > Most of the big problems in software are problems of .highlight[misconception]. ### Rich Hickey ##### "Hammock Driven Development". Clojure Conj, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc. --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space18.jpg) # software development is change management .turtle[] --- class: middle, center # `require('hawking');`  --- class: middle, left > It is an interesting reflection on the general climate of thought > before the twentieth century that .highlight[no one had suggested that the] > .highlight[universe was expanding or contracting.] ### Steven Hawking ##### A Brief History of Time. Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks: 6, 1988. --- class: middle, center # `require('parnas');`   --- class: middle, left > [Start] with a list of difficult design decisions or design decisions which are .highlight[likely to change.] > Each module is then designed to .highlight[hide such a decision] from the others. ### David Parnas ##### Parnas, D. L. 1972 On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc: Programming Techniques, 1053-1058. --- class: middle, center # the goal of modularity is not to make things easier but to .highlight[hide the things that are hard] --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, left > Here we demonstrate that the ubiquitous, direct selection > .highlight[pressure to reduce the cost of connections] > between network nodes causes the emergence of modular networks. ##### Clune J, Mouret J-B, Lipson H. 2013 The evolutionary origins of modularity. Proc R Soc B 280: 20122863. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.2863 --- class: middle, center <iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SG4_aW8LMng" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space4.jpg) # how to computer? .turtle[] --- class: middle, left > None of us are born knowing how to write software. ### Rich Hickey --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg) # all is not lost, dogs know calculus --- class: middle, center,space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg)  --- class: middle, center,space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg)  --- class: middle, center,space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg)  --- class: middle, center,space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg) # corgis are made of star stuff -- # and so are we --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg)  --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space5.jpg) # despair? --- class: middle, center # `require('sartre');`  --- class: middle, center  --- class: middle, center # `require('tef');`  --- class: middle, left > Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend. > Instead of building re-usable software, we should try to build disposable software. >I don’t need to tell you that deleting code is more fun than writing it. ### Tef ##### http://programmingisterrible.com/post/139222674273/write-code-that-is-easy-to-delete-not-easy-to --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space20.jpg) # repeat yourself to avoid creating dependencies, but don’t repeat yourself to manage them --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space15.jpg) # layer your code too: build simple-to-use APIs out of simpler-to-implement but clumsy-to-use parts. --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space12.jpg) # split your code: isolate the hard-to-write and the likely-to-change parts from the rest of the code, and each other. --- class: middle, center, space-turtle background-image: url(public/images/space19.jpg) # don’t try to do all of these things at the same time, and maybe don’t write so much code in the first place. --- class: middle, center # what is spacetime? --- class: middle, left # spacetime ## refers to whatever external reality underlies our collective experiences of the space between things and the time between events. ##### "Are Space and Time An Illusion" PBS Space Time, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YycAzdtUIko. --- class: middle, center # why not just time? why not just space? --- class: middle, center # why add space time as an extra concept? --- class: middle, left ## Suppose 2 observers are moving at relative speeds to each other... - ## they can't agree on how much time passes between events - ## they can't agree on how much space - ## they can't EVEN agree on the chronological order of events --- class: middle, center # ... yet neither of them is wrong. --- class: center, middle # what is time is a tough question, it's not even the full question --- class: center, middle # what is modularity is a tough question, it's not even the full question --- class: center, middle  Julia Evans, @b0rk --- class: left, middle # `npm install` # `a-brief-history` <code> { "name": "a brief history and mishistory of modularity", "author": "ashley williams @ag_dubs", "version": "1.0.0", "dependencies" : { "Edsger Dijkstra": ["On the Cruelty of Really Teaching Computer Science"](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1036.html), "Stephen Hawking": ["A Brief History of Time"](http://www.hawking.org.uk/a-brief-history-of-time.html), "Rich Hickey": ["Hammock Driven Development"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc), "Rich Hickey": ["Design, Composition, Performance"](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Design-Composition-Performance), "Tef": ["Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend."](http://programmingisterrible.com/post/139222674273/write-code-that-is-easy-to-delete-not-easy-to), "CJ Silverio": ["Cheating Gall's Law"](https://vimeo.com/128796804), "Nolan Lawson": ["The cost of small modules"](https://nolanlawson.com/2016/08/15/the-cost-of-small-modules/), "Substack": ["How I write modules"](http://substack.net/how_I_write_modules), "Sindre Sohrus": ["Small Modules: Tales from a Serial Module Author"](http://dailyjs.com/2015/07/02/small-modules-complexity-over-size/) } </code> --- class: middle, center background-image: url(public/images/space1.jpg)