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--- principles:keep_it_simple_stupid [2025-11-04 22:41] – created colequinn8555
+++ principles:keep_it_simple_stupid [2025-11-25 10:53] (current) – old revision restored (2021-10-20 21:09) christian
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-If you happen to be watching the Democratic primaries you probably know every single of the candidates have introduced their universal healthcare policies. Those who is going to be Christ Jesus need to view this very clearly. [[https://Pyra-Handheld.com/wiki/index.php/The_Best_Choices_Within_A_Healthcare_Career_That_Pay_Well|新潟市中央区 坐骨神経痛]] There exists a much better healthcare system, because our leader isn't subject to alter because of your respective false accusation, or an exit poll change. Our leader has given us His policy where health is matter to. The blessing of His redemptive name Jehovah Rapha (I Am the Lord theat Healeth Thee) was provided by the Atonement. Ended up being His first promise to heal.
+====== Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) ======
-Take a software program or home-study the local language. When you're getting there, show interest in learning and understanding more words as well as the values held rather than expecting others to cope with your wants and necessities. You are the guests, so be an appreciative website visitor. Every place has a Osteopathic clinic pair of customs and values possibly very unique from yours. Make every effort to learn these ahead of time or while visiting and engaging the district. This can vary from how to decorate to being photographed. Never assume. Be open and still interested.
+===== Variations and Alternative Names =====
-There it is. Not one feeble person was among their tribe. That's over 5 million plus people, absolutely no one suffering. This policy is still in their place and is established on better promises now because of the blood of Jesus.
+  * (Rule of) Simplicity
+  * KISS may also mean "Keep it short and simple", "keep it simple and straightforward", "keep it smart and simple", etc. A large amount of variations exists.
-During almost the entire package talk I have yet to listen the term "bureaucracy". The thing that occurs when the government gets a anything is create bureaucracy. I've heard of 12,000 additional IRS agents that end up being needed to enforce the tax laws in this bill. Just about be online marketers government agencies, departments, offices, staff, processes, rules, procedures, etc. The 535 congressmen and Government will donrrrt you have nearly enough family and friends to fill all of the positions.
+**Remarks**: "Stupid" may be interpreted as an adjective or a noun. Compare the two variants "keep it simple and stupid" vs. "keep it simple, stupid!". Despite all these alternative names, the general idea of the KISS principle is always the same.
-This involving healthcare training can also prepare you for a career in an institution or clinic. But if you know that you would rather work in private homes, you can tailor your 新潟市中央区 坐骨神経痛 training to intention.
-You: OK, well I am aware that sometimes people obtain a bit nervous when they require their first acupuncture treatment so this is exactly what I'll do for your site. we have a free report process to chose the most beneficial acupuncturist for your own benefit or all your family and before you appear I'll send that for you through the mail so you've an involving what locate in an Acupuncture clinic, does that make sense?
+===== Context =====
-Kay is my accountant los angeles. Last month she called me just additional medications sure I got my quarterly taxes for their way the actual world proper amounts and for the proper influence. I have to confess I was impressed that they was do you want to me.
+  * [[contexts:Object-Oriented Design]]
+  * [[contexts:Architecture]]
+  * [[contexts:User Interface Design]]
+  * [[contexts:Implementation]]
-See, a lot of healthcare services might hesitate to you should try it because of this word 'remanufactured' attached for this toner printer cartridge. They might think that as the a remanufactured toner cartridge, it won't offer excellent and finding risk to print out prescription with this toner mouthpiece. Well, this thought is wrong, because although the price of remanufactured HP Q6000A is cheap, but the quality is completely outstanding.
+===== Principle Statement =====
-Sometime in mid-October of 2008, I managed to injure my left shoulder in a major accident while doing some work inside your own home. I was moving some boxes that Got stored in the garage and that i stumbled over something. Your past process I managed capture my fall by stretching my left-hand Osteopathic clinic out towards wall. My hand grasped the wall, but the momentum kept my body moving ahead. The result was very painful since i forced my arm and shoulder back in an unnatural position.
+A simple solution is better than a complex one, even if the solution looks stupid.
-Last time I set on see Henry he laughed and said that acupuncture will return the balance in requires by clearing the meridians. But kind continue to help keep your body on regularly in order to bare this balance. Exercise and diet is the only method to do all of this.
-Under our current 新潟市中央区 坐骨神経痛 system, associated with dollars are spent every year for antidepressant medications. But, they are "effective" entire about 25-30% of those taking them (placebo merely as effective), and tend not to address the real issues of depression. Depression is not really disease; it's a symptom of something else, and in many cases, this may be given Omega-3 oils or high sesquiterpene aromatics far better - and cheaply - than with medications.
+===== Description =====
-That's all there usually it. If you have the remedies for the above questions, there'll be a clear understanding of methods your insurance supports damage care situation. It is important to keep detailed records about all contacts you've with your insurance company, including call notes, copies of bills, claims, and letters. Your own will allow you if a dispute arises about a conversation you incurred or a compensation claim. If you are not satisfied with the representative's explanations or your merchandise Osteopathic clinic or your policy coverage, let your insurance company know. Instead of a large amounts of money for your policy, it's important be aware of the terms better than anyone else and are satisfied jointly with your coverage.
+The KISS principle is about striving for simplicity. Modern programming languages, frameworks and APIs have powerful means to create sophisticated solutions for various kinds of problems. Sometimes developers might feel tempted to write "clever" solutions that use all these complex features. The KISS principle states that a solution is better when it uses less inheritance, less polymorphism, fewer classes, etc.
+A solution that follows the KISS principle might look boring or even "stupid" but simple and understandable. The KISS principle states that there is no value in a solution being "clever" but being easily understandable.
+This does not mean that features like inheritance and polymorphism should not be used at all. Rather they should only be used when they are necessary or there is some substantial advantage.
+===== Rationale =====
+A simpler solution is better than a complex one because simple solutions are easier to maintain. This includes increased readability, understandability, and changeability. Furthermore, writing simple code is less error-prone.
+The advantage of simplicity is even more significant when the person who maintains the software is not the one who once wrote it. The maintainer might also be less familiar with sophisticated programming language features. So simple and stupid programs are easier to maintain because the maintainer needs less time to understand them and is less likely to introduce further defects.
+One reason to create more complex code is to make it more flexible to accommodate further requirements. But one cannot know how to make it flexible or if that flexibility will be ever needed.
+"When you make your code more flexible or sophisticated than it needs to be, you over-engineer it. Some do this because they believe they know their system's future requirements. The reason that it's best to make a design more flexible or sophisticated today is to accommodate the needs of tomorrow. That sounds reasonable, if you happen to be a psychic." - Refactoring To Patterns - Joshua Kerievsky.
+Another reason to create more complex code is to make optimizations. An optimized code is a more complex code. Pareto principle applies also in code: a program spends most of the time in a small portion of the code, so it will be wise to concentrate the effort to optimize only that part of the code. Another best practice is to follow the
+"Three rules of optimization": (1. Don't, 2. Don't... Yet, 3. Profile before optimizing), which make sense: to optimize only the code with performance problems. (First author: Michael A. Jackson)
+===== Strategies =====
+This is a very general principle, so there is a large variety of possible strategies to adhere more to this principle largely depending on the given design problem:
+  * Avoid inheritance, polymorphism, dynamic binding and other complicated OOP concepts. Use delegation and simple if-constructs instead.
+  * Avoid low-level optimization of algorithms, especially when involving Assembler, bit-operations, and pointers. Slower implementations will work just fine.
+  * Use simple brute-force solutions instead of complicated algorithms. Slower algorithms will work in the first place.
+  * Avoid numerous classes and methods as well as large code blocks (see [[More Is More Complex]])
+  * For slightly unrelated but rather small pieces of functionality use private methods instead of an additional class.
+  * Avoid general solutions needing parameterization. A specific solution will suffice.
+  * ...
+===== Caveats =====
+See section [[#contrary principles]].
+===== Origin =====
+The principle was coined by the American engineer Kelly Johnson referring to the requirement that a military aircraft should be repairable with a limited set of tools under combat conditions ((Ben R. Rich: //[[http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/cjohnson.pdf|Clarence Leonard (Kelly) Johnson 1910—1990: A Biographical Memoir]]//)).
+The principle of striving for simple solutions sometimes is also called "(rule of) simplicity"((Eric S. Raymond: //[[http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html#id2877917|The Art of Unix Programming]]//)) which was also prominently stated by Tony Hoare in his Turing Award lecture: "I conclude that there are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult."((Tony Hoare: //[[http://awards.acm.org/images/awards/140/articles/4622167.pdf|The Emperor’s Old Clothes / The 1980 ACM Turing Award Lecture]]//))
+===== Evidence =====
+/* Comment out what is not applicable and explain the rest: */
+/*  * [[wiki:Proposed]]*/
+/*  * [[wiki:Questioned]]*/
+[[wiki:Accepted]]: This principle is widely known and accepted in practice. See for example Jargon File: //[[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/K/KISS-Principle.html|KISS Principle]]//
+[[wiki:Examined]]: While the preference for simple solutions can be considered trivially intuitive, there has been some work relating simplicity or rather complexity and certain quality attributes. But as there is no universally applicable complexity metric and not even a commonly agreed upon clear definition of simplicity, research is bound to examine certain aspects of KISS independently.
+The following hypotheses can be stated:
+  - Simpler solutions are faster to implement.
+  - Simpler solutions yield fewer implementation faults (which reduces testing effort).
+  - Simpler solutions are easier to maintain, i.e. detecting and correcting defects is more effective and efficient.
+  - Simpler solutions yield more reliable software, i.e. fewer defects show up after releasing the software.
+All these hypotheses can be examined with respect to different complexity metrics.
+Hypothesis 1 is true by definition. If the solution cannot be implemented quickly, it is not simple.
+Though hypotheses 2 and 3 are not true by definition but they can be regarded intuitively clear. Nevertheless, there is some research. In ((Virginia R. Gibson and James A. Senn: //[[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=62073|System Structure and Software Maintenance Performance]]//)) a system was improved in two steps resulting in three variants of the same system. Several metrics show that the improvements reduced complexity. 36 programmers with varying experience conducted three different maintenance tasks and their performance was measured. The results indicate that the improvements also improved maintainability. Several other studies support the correlation between complexity and maintainability((Chris F. Kemerer: //[[http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02249043?LI=true|Software complexity and software maintenance: A survey of empirical research]]//)).
+Furthermore, software cost estimation techniques are partly based on complexity judgments((Barry W. Boehm: //Software Engineering Economics//, IEEE)). So complexity---although this normally relates the complexity of the problem and not to the complexity of the solution---is a known cost factor which may be accounted to maintenance.
+Lastly, hypothesis 4 is likely to be false. Several studies relating complexity metrics and post-release reliability show that module size in lines of code predicts reliability at least as good as the McCabe metric (also called cyclomatic complexity) ((see Albert Endres, Dieter Rombach: //A Handbook of Software and Systems Engineering//, p. 168ff.)). Assuming cyclomatic complexity correctly depicts the complexity of a module, reliability should not the reason for applying KISS.
+===== Relations to Other Principles =====
+==== Generalizations ====
+==== Specializations ====
+  * [[More Is More Complex]] (MIMC): KISS states that one should strive for simplicity. MIMC makes this more concrete stating that more of anything (methods, classes, lines of code, ...) increases complexity.
+  * [[You Ain't Gonna Need It]] (YAGNI)
+  * [[Rule of Parsimony]]
+  * [[Rule of Robustness]]
+==== Contrary Principles ====
+Note that many principles are contrary to KISS. This means that it is worthwhile to consider KISS when considering one of those. Nevertheless this does not mean that this is true the other way around. When considering KISS, one wouldn't want to consider all principles that have complexity as a disadvantage. So here are those needing consideration:
+  * **[[Generalization Principle]] (GP)**: This is the directly converse principle. A generally applicable solution typically is not simple anymore.
+  * **[[Murphy's Law]] (ML)**: The ultimate reason behind KISS is to increase maintainability and reduce the introduction of defects. But following KISS blindly by always using the simplest solution may also lead to //reduced// maintainability when Murphy's Law is not considered.
+  * [[Model Principle]] (MP): There are often simpler ways to build a software system than to model and mirror the real-world behavior, which frequently means having more objects and more complicated structures. Nevertheless, it is advisable to do so anyway.
+==== Complementary Principles ====
+==== Principle Collections ====
+{{page>collections:OOD Principle Language#Box}}
+{{page>collections:Unix Philosophy (Eric S. Raymond)#Box}}
+===== Examples =====
+==== Example 1: Fuzzy Simplicity ====
+Simplicity is a blurry, partly subjective measure. Sometimes it is difficult to tell what is simpler. The following example shows that:
+<code java>
+public String weekday1(int dayOfWeek)
+{
+    switch (dayOfWeek)
+    {
+        case 1: return "Monday";
+        case 2: return "Tuesday";
+        case 3: return "Wednesday";
+        case 4: return "Thursday";
+        case 5: return "Friday";
+        case 6: return "Saturday";
+        case 7: return "Sunday";
+        default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("dayOfWeek must be in range 1..7");
+    }
+}
+public String weekday2(int dayOfWeek)
+{
+    if ((dayOfWeek < 1) || (dayOfWeek > 7))
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException("dayOfWeek must be in range 1..7");
+    final String[] weekdays = {
+        "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"};
+    return weekdays[dayOfWeek-1];
+}
+</code>
+Both methods do exactly the same thing. They return a string representing the weekday. Just the implementation is different. Both versions may be seen as simpler than the other depending on the view taken. ''weekday2'' has less statements and less execution branches. Complexity metrics measuring these aspects (e.g. the [[glossary:cyclomatic complexity]]) will therefore prefer ''weekday2''.
+On the other hand ''weekdays1'' uses less language features (just switch, return, and exceptions whereas ''weekdays2'' needs if, arrays, arithmetic, return, and exceptions). Furthermore in ''weekdays1'' the relation between input and output can be seen directly and it's clear how it works by just seeing the method. But for understanding ''weekday2'' there are more details to think about. This is especially true for the range check at the beginning and the index computation in the ''return'' statement. Clearly this is not particularly difficult but these are aspects which are more difficult than in the other version of the method.
+So it's not objectively clear which of the two implementations KISS prefers without saying which complexity metric to apply. But this ambiguity is not a problem since principles are not meant to be unambiguous and objective. Eventually a human developer has to decide which solution to implement and the principles only give guidelines.
+===== Description Status =====
+/* Choose one of the following and comment out the rest: */
+/*[[wiki:Stub]]*/
+[[wiki:Incomplete]]
+/*[[wiki:Complete]]*/
+===== Further Reading =====
+  * [[wiki>KeepItSimple]]
+  * [[wp>KISS principle]]
+  * [[http://people.apache.org/~fhanik/kiss.html|Apache: KISS]]
+  * [[http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html#id2877917|The Art of Unix Programming: Rule of Simplicity]]
+===== Discussion =====
+Discuss this wiki article and the principle on the corresponding [[talk:principles:Keep It Simple Stupid|talk page]].