Should Developers Use Third-Party Libraries?
Every new developer learns the following core principles of software engineering early in their career:
DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself)
This acronym encourages developers to avoid code duplication and focus on configurable and reusable components.
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Always aim for simplicity in your design by avoiding over-engineered solutions.
YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It)
Focus on your current requirements, don’t try to predict future needs
But I’d like to focus on a fourth principle, one that pre-dates software engineering:
Don’t reinvent the wheel.
This implies that you should avoid spending time and effort solving problems that others have already solved. As a developer, the most common way of putting this principle into practice is by using third-party libraries.
