{"id":13291,"date":"2016-06-14T12:15:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T09:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/?p=13291"},"modified":"2016-06-14T11:56:22","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T08:56:22","slug":"simple-code-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple code is beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp! Python!), the simplest web application you can create includes HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript for the interactivity. You don\u2019t even need to setup a web server: just open it in your browser or host it with any cheap shared hosting and it just works.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone can maintain this application with just a text editor, a web browser and some experimentation. It\u2019s a great way to learn how the web works, and it is a good solution for a few pages showing static information or a little JavaScript calculator.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there as soon as you need to save the state of the application or introduce some other form of server-side logic. Also, your application will soon turn into an unmanageable mess if you have to update many pages every time there is a small change.<\/p>\n<p>Once you get started on this path and have chosen a web development stack, you\u2019ll end up depending on many tools, technologies and frameworks for your developments process. In many cases, you HAVE to do this: most stacks don\u2019t include everything, and you have to choose libraries according to the needs of your project. Unfortunately, every new bit that you add needs to be updated and can break on you. You need to find a balance between the time saved now by using a tool or automating a process, and the time waster further down the road if it breaks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to add dependencies, but you have to make sure it\u2019s worth it for your project (see the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haneycodes.net\/npm-left-pad-have-we-forgotten-how-to-program\/\">left-pad debacle<\/a>): a good dependency is something that doesn\u2019t make sense to code yourself. You should never trust logic that is core to your application and that cannot easily be replaced to a third-party tool. That means that using a framework for two-way data binding or even just for handling AJAX calls is the proper thing to do, but a chat application that would outsource the chatting part is taking on a lot of risk.<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for the code itself. When you\u2019re thinking of trying out a fancy new language feature, you need to ask yourself if the immediate productivity gain is worth it. Will it make maintenance and readability harder for everyone working with the code (including you in 6 months)?<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need to use each and every feature of a language. If you come up with a new way to do things at every possible occasion, it\u2019s going to be very hard to introduce new people to your project. Using a small subset of the language makes it easier to understand what\u2019s going on, even if it\u2019s boring. You can experiment in your own learning projects, not in code meant for production.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, I like to keep my IDE as simple as possible, and work with a small number of tools. Many plugins are a great boost to productivity, but you don\u2019t want to depend on all of them working perfectly to be able to do something. Also, if you deviate too much from the standard working environment for your technology or at your organization, it\u2019s a lot harder to collaborate with other people. A simple environment meant you\u2019re able to start working quickly, without spending hours reinstalling software to setup your environment.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re just working on projects for a few months and handing them off to someone else to maintain, or if you\u2019re just doing small projects to learn, it may not be as obvious, but those are all things that can come back and bite you. Your code will most likely be around for many years, and your tools must last that long or you\u2019ll find yourself scrambling to find an alternative quickly.<\/p>\n<div class=\"attribution\">\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span class=\"reference\">Reference: <\/span><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.cindypotvin.com\/simple-code-is-beautiful\/\">Simple code is beautiful<\/a> from our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/join-us\/wcg\/\">WCG partner<\/a> Cindy Potvin at the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.cindypotvin.com\/\">Web, Mobile and Android Programming<\/a> blog.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp! Python!), the simplest web application you can create includes HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript for the interactivity. You don\u2019t even need to setup a web server: just open it &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-development"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Simple code is beautiful - Web Code Geeks - 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Simple code is beautiful - Web Code Geeks - 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Web Code Geeks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webcodegeeks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-14T09:15:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cindy Potvin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/CindyPtn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@webcodegeeks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cindy Potvin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cindy Potvin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c5df30ebfba793235473ab81edbd742\"},\"headline\":\"Simple code is beautiful\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-14T09:15:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\"},\"wordCount\":686,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Web Dev\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\",\"name\":\"Simple code is beautiful - Web Code Geeks - 2026\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-14T09:15:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\",\"width\":150,\"height\":150},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Web Dev\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/category\/web-development\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Simple code is beautiful\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/\",\"name\":\"Web Code Geeks\",\"description\":\"Web Developers Resource Center\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Exelixis Media P.C.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/exelixis-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/exelixis-logo.png\",\"width\":864,\"height\":246,\"caption\":\"Exelixis Media P.C.\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webcodegeeks\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/webcodegeeks\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c5df30ebfba793235473ab81edbd742\",\"name\":\"Cindy Potvin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957776d6732b26df4f63c29c8a3cb127ef09eb38b9f5befec1840ee3a1abed32?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957776d6732b26df4f63c29c8a3cb127ef09eb38b9f5befec1840ee3a1abed32?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cindy Potvin\"},\"description\":\"Cindy is a programmer with over 5 years of experience developing web applications. She also works on Android applications and share her knowledge via her blog and on Twitter.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/blog.cindypotvin.com\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/CindyPtn\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/author\/cindy-potvin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Simple code is beautiful - Web Code Geeks - 2026","description":"Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Simple code is beautiful - Web Code Geeks - 2026","og_description":"Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/","og_site_name":"Web Code Geeks","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webcodegeeks","article_published_time":"2016-06-14T09:15:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":150,"url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cindy Potvin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/CindyPtn","twitter_site":"@webcodegeeks","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cindy Potvin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/"},"author":{"name":"Cindy Potvin","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c5df30ebfba793235473ab81edbd742"},"headline":"Simple code is beautiful","datePublished":"2016-06-14T09:15:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/"},"wordCount":686,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg","articleSection":["Web Dev"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/","url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/","name":"Simple code is beautiful - Web Code Geeks - 2026","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg","datePublished":"2016-06-14T09:15:50+00:00","description":"Despite the large number of languages and tools that will get thrown at you if you mention web development (Ruby! React! Node.js! AngularJS! Gulp!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg","width":150,"height":150},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/simple-code-beautiful\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Web Dev","item":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/category\/web-development\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Simple code is beautiful"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/","name":"Web Code Geeks","description":"Web Developers Resource Center","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization","name":"Exelixis Media P.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/exelixis-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/exelixis-logo.png","width":864,"height":246,"caption":"Exelixis Media P.C."},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webcodegeeks","https:\/\/x.com\/webcodegeeks"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c5df30ebfba793235473ab81edbd742","name":"Cindy Potvin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957776d6732b26df4f63c29c8a3cb127ef09eb38b9f5befec1840ee3a1abed32?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957776d6732b26df4f63c29c8a3cb127ef09eb38b9f5befec1840ee3a1abed32?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cindy Potvin"},"description":"Cindy is a programmer with over 5 years of experience developing web applications. She also works on Android applications and share her knowledge via her blog and on Twitter.","sameAs":["http:\/\/blog.cindypotvin.com\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/CindyPtn"],"url":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/author\/cindy-potvin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}