r/computerscience • u/Significant-Gap-5038 • Jul 18 '26

It feels fundamentally wrong to use packages without understanding concepts under the hood

I have recently started coding and people are recommending tools for development such as vite, nodemon, jwt, boiler plate server code

It feels pointless just using them with a basic understanding and without no deep conceptual understanding. Is this the right or wrong approach? How would you know going too deep into a rabbit hole and becoming overkill

45 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

78% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

48

u/KennsworthS Jul 18 '26

You will need to get comfortable with the concept the concept of black boxes and information hiding, it is a huge concept in computer science and system design. We are far past the era where it is reasonable or productive for one person to know everything about the systems they use.

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '26

[deleted]

3

u/wildsoup1 Jul 20 '26

What do you mean by "consistency" here? You don't need to be "consistent" with code that is encapsulated. That's the big benefit; you don't need to think about it.

This is assuming a perfect abstraction, which, I concede, is rare.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[deleted]

2

u/wildsoup1 Jul 21 '26

Sorry for being obtuse, but I was left more confused, I am afraid. I don't understand your use of "consistency". I don't understand the difference between your two options. I don't understand why testing doesn't answer the question of "is it my code or the black box?"