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Premature generalisation is the root of all evil.

According to Stepanov generalisation is something you are supposed to discover as you develop a program, not something you do from first principles.



That may be relevant when you're writing a program. When you're writing a _library_, the "discovery" has already happened. But you can't just use the minimum level of generalization useful for your own program(s), you need to consider the conceivable needs of fellow programmers.




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