The Law of Leaky Abstractions
Added to The Forgotten Web: . Historical publication details follow.
2002-11-11 · programming essay · original online
Joel Spolsky explains why abstractions are useful but never perfectly sealed from the lower layers beneath them.
WHY IT STILL MATTERSIt is one of the cleanest explanations of why “easy” systems suddenly demand deep knowledge at the worst moment.
Best opened when a tool promises to hide complexity forever. The bill always arrives.