Kevlin Henney on “configuration is code” in his essay “Out of Control. An essay on paradigms, refactoring…”
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/07/31
For my link archive [Wayback/Archive] Out of Control. An essay on paradigms, refactoring… | by Kevlin Henney | Dec, 2020 | Medium.
Neither because Kevlin describes how to refactor a basic algorithm to convert Roman numerals into Hindu-Arabic numerals (in part by using the fact that an if statement can be considered a bounded case of a while loop), nor because he splits the resulting algorithm in coded data and coded statements, or because he mentions the [Wayback/Archive] Gilded Rose Kata but because well, you should just read it in full.
Remember though:
there is no silver bullet, so sometimes code is configuration instead of the other way around.
Via [Wayback/Archive] Kevlin Henney on Twitter: “Out of Control This is the blog post I referred to in my @devternity talk this morning when making the point that configuration is code.”.
–jeroen
PS:
- XML, JSON and YAML are languages for a reason (;
- [Wayback/Archive] NotMyself/GildedRose: Refactoring Kata is where it originally started with motivation at[Wayback/Archive] Refactor This: The Gilded Rose Kata – I Am NotMyself – Skills to pay the bills (which then moved to [Wayback/Archive] Refactor This: The Gilded Rose Kata and moved again to [Wayback/Archive] Refactor This: The Gilded Rose Kata, hopefully it won’t die from link rot); a repository covering many programming languages/environments is at [Wayback/Archive] emilybache/GildedRose-Refactoring-Kata: Starting code for the GildedRose Refactoring Kata in many programming languages..
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
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