Many ways to do the same thing

^{Jul 29, 2024}

How often do you realize that you can do something in a more than one way? Let’s say you are declaring dependencies in your gradle project. And there are two options:

// String notation
configurationName "group:name:version:classifier@extension"

// Map notation
configurationName group: 'group', name: 'name', version: 'version', classifier: 'classifier', ext: 'extension'

Many programming language provide several ways to do the same. In Java for example you could create a list at least like that:

List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
List<String> list = List.of();
List<String> list = Collections.emptyList();

Yes, these lists have a little different implementation details, but still.. It may look confusing for newbies.

There is also Perl programming language (created by Larry Wall) that achieved “great” success in this direction. It is often associated with the abbreviation TIMTOWTDI (There Is More Than One Way To Do It). What about simple condition operator in Perl? The following snippets do the same:

if($a != $b) {
  exit 1;
}
unless($a == $b) {
  exit 1;
}
exit 1 if($a != $b);
exit 1 unless($a == $b);
exit 1 if $a != $b;

What programmers do when there are two ways to solve the same problem? Right, they do both. As a result your code will turn into a mess.