MKEngineering
Engineering services and consulting
Philosophy
We work powered mainly by two philosophies: KISS and UNIX.
KISS
KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.
- Simpler solutions are faster to implement.
- Simpler solutions yield less implementation faults (which reduces testing effort).
- Simpler solutions are easier to maintain, i.e. detecting and correcting defects is more effective and efficient.
- Simpler solutions yield more reliable software, i.e. less defects show up after releasing the software.
Unix
The Unix philosophy emphasizes building simple, short, clear, modular, and extensible code that can be easily maintained and repurposed by developers other than its creators. The Unix philosophy favors composability as opposed to monolithic design.
- Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new "features".
- Expect the output of every program to become the input to another, as yet unknown, program. Don't clutter output with extraneous information. Avoid stringently columnar or binary input formats. Don't insist on interactive input.
- Design and build software, even operating systems, to be tried early, ideally within weeks. Don't hesitate to throw away the clumsy parts and rebuild them.
- Use tools in preference to unskilled help to lighten a programming task, even if you have to detour to build the tools and expect to throw some of them out after you've finished using them.