Re: [extremeprogramming] About placing configuration defaults

 
On Thursday, 21 November 2019, 07:13:48 GMT, Slava Imeshev via Groups.Io <[email protected]> wrote:

> Just a thought, what prevents us from having ‘configure-nothing’ systems? Or, if it existed, how would it behave differently if such an approach existed?

Well, that's potentially a huge topic because it depends on a lot of context.
Why do we need configuration? Some random thoughts:
- because different users want to use the same code in different ways on different hardware at different times- because of switching back and forth between different modes of operation, without having to manually change dozens of settings- because the context (OS etc) doesn't contain the user-specific information the application needs (e.g. git needs your name and email address)  - and even if it does, you might want to change it for an individual application- because we run the same code in different environments (and the code cannot necessarily inspect the environment and/or deduce the desired way to run there)  - e.g. running the same data processing code on a 100-node shared cluster rather than a 10-node single-user cluster.     How many nodes and how much memory should a given job use? That depends on a lot of information...- because there are external dependencies that cannot (possibly by design) be known by the visible environment (except by some other form of configuration)- because security credentials can't be safely built into the code (and may expire, too)
and so on.
But I do agree it's useful exercise to consider each configuration entry and think hard about whether it could be eliminated...
David



  

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