Re: Well, maybe you ARE gonna need it?

Preparation is a gamble - you're gambling that the small amount of extra (possibly unpaid) time you're putting in now will save you a large amount of (paid) time later. The odds are always heavily in your favor, since 99% of clients won't figure out all of what they want until the last second. Plus, having to rewrite your entire application every week will drive you insane rather quickly, and even if you aren't getting paid for anything except your hours, it's best to prepare purely for the sake of your mental health.

Comment on Re: Well, maybe you ARE gonna need it?

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Re^2: Well, maybe you ARE gonna need it? by perrin (Chancellor) on May 09, 2006 at 12:38 UTC
If you have to rewrite your application every week, you're probably doing too much preparation, rather than not enough. Rewriting usually means you made assumptions that turned out to be untrue. If you write clean code that is easy to add to, but don't try to guess what might need to be added now, that's YAGNI. In this specific case, writing code where a text formatter can be added is YAGNI, while guessing what kind of formatter might be needed and adding it ahead of time is not.	[reply]

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Re^2: Well, maybe you ARE gonna need it?
by perrin (Chancellor) on May 09, 2006 at 12:38 UTC

If you have to rewrite your application every week, you're probably doing too much preparation, rather than not enough. Rewriting usually means you made assumptions that turned out to be untrue. If you write clean code that is easy to add to, but don't try to guess what might need to be added now, that's YAGNI. In this specific case, writing code where a text formatter can be added is YAGNI, while guessing what kind of formatter might be needed and adding it ahead of time is not.

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