Limiting yourself a good idea?
rzwitserloot posted in programming on May 4th, 2006

Two completely unrelated factoids gave me an idea. First, the factoids:

java’s java.util.atomic package contains utility classes useful for various threading-related activities, including more extensive locking abilities compared to the language’s own synchronized keyword. Currently, the locks through that package are actually FASTER - eventhough synchronized is built right into the language and can use the local OS/processor’s abilities to the fullest extent. The tricks employed by the java.util.atomic team will be adapted by the language team for forthcoming versions, of course, but its rather interesting that the team with the rather huge limitation of only relying on java’s basic code and not an entire underlying OSes worth of low-level libraries wrote the faster code.

del.icio.us is a bookmarking webservice. I trust most of my readers are familiar with it. They had to work with the limited abilities of web programming to make it work, in contrast to the Opera, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari teams (all famous browser engines) who had an entire OS to work with.

Even without web-centric del.icio.us features its a much nicer bookmarking system compared to what ANY of the aforementioned 4 browsers have to offer (and I’ve actually extensively used all 4). Throw in the inbox, del.icio.us/popular, and the notion that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere, not just from your own machine, and del.icio.us is no longer in the same ballpark, hell, no longer on the same planet compared to the bookmarking engines built into any browser.

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Apparently, restrictions that cannot be worked around can actually help you make the right design decisions.

Neccessity is the mother of invention, indeed!

Next time there is a restriction that you might be able to work around, consider not doing that and instead coming up with a new way of approaching the problem.