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Discussion on: Is it normal that devs get stuck to figure out a solution while using external libraries?

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Ben Sinclair

I think the problem comes from wanting to use an existing library for the right reasons:

  • re-use
  • many eyes
  • someone else does the security updates

That sort of thing. It's all good, right? Except in the real world the majority of third-party libraries have incomplete or missing documentation, or documentation written assuming unspecified prior knowledge.

Figuring out how to use a library feels like a problem because in the real world you have to spend time before you find out that the library is actually unsuitable for your purpose or would only work if you rewrote it (defeating the whole point), and your experience of having done this a few million times by now makes you reluctant to spend the time learning yet another API.