Inner-platform effect

<h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
<p>Examples are visible in <a href="/facts/Plug-in_(computing)/351Du3Wu">plugin</a>-based software such as some <a href="/facts/Text_editor/jPCgtbvN">text editors</a> and <a href="/facts/Web_browser/2pfyymLs">web browsers</a> which often have developers create plugins that recreate software that would normally run on top of the operating system itself. The <a href="/facts/Firefox/xez2zv8H">Firefox</a> add-on mechanism has been used to develop a number of <a href="/facts/File_Transfer_Protocol/THuWgzfw">FTP</a> clients and <a href="/facts/File_browser/t7CSQ40a">file browsers</a>, which effectively replicate some of the features of the <a href="/facts/Operating_system/8XTuvMh2">operating system</a>, albeit on a more restricted platform.
</p><p>In the <a href="/facts/Database/VYcpkevb">database</a> world, developers are sometimes tempted to bypass the <a href="/facts/RDBMS/pEKGmJLy">RDBMS</a>, for example by storing everything in one big <a href="/facts/Table_(database)/5INvK1Vd">table</a> with three <a href="/facts/Column_(database)/WB91xSVs">columns</a> labelled entity ID, key, and value. While this <a href="/facts/Entity-attribute-value_model/Vs3QYPJM">entity-attribute-value model</a> enables the developer to break out from the structure imposed by an <a href="/facts/SQL/UjQLJcYm">SQL</a> database, it loses out on all the benefits,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> since all of the work that could be done efficiently by the RDBMS is forced onto the application instead. Queries become much more convoluted,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> the <a href="/facts/Index_(database)/TRqmk9It">indexes</a> and <a href="/facts/Query_optimizer/KsSwxtw8">query optimizer</a> can no longer work effectively, and <a href="/facts/Data_validation/tFCchJTM">data validity constraints</a> are not enforced. Performance and maintainability can be extremely poor.
</p><p>A similar temptation exists for <a href="/facts/XML/clNgUfWk">XML</a>, where developers sometimes favor generic element names and use attributes to store meaningful information. For example, every element might be named <i>item</i> and have attributes <i>type</i> and <i>value</i>. This practice requires <a href="/facts/Join_(relational_algebra)/7tjTFXdf">joins</a> across multiple attributes in order to extract meaning. As a result, <a href="/facts/XPath/0eCtJoj7">XPath</a> expressions are more convoluted, evaluation is less efficient, and structural validation provides little benefit.
</p>
<h2 id="effect">Effect</h2>
<p>It is normal for software developers to create a library of custom functions that relate to their specific project. The inner-platform effect occurs when this library expands to include general purpose functions that duplicate functionality already available as part of the programming language or platform. Since each of these new functions will generally call a number of the original functions, they tend to be slower, and if poorly coded, less reliable as well.
</p><p>On the other hand, such functions are often created to present a simpler (and often more portable) abstraction layer on top of lower level services that either have an awkward interface, are too complex, non-portable or insufficiently portable, or simply a poor match for higher level application code.
</p>
<h2 id="appropriate-uses">Appropriate uses</h2>
<p>An inner platform can be useful for portability and privilege separation reasons—in other words, so that the same application can run on a wide variety of outer platforms without affecting anything outside a <a href="/facts/Sandbox_(computer_security)/WEm2u7oG">sandbox</a> managed by the inner platform. For example, Sun Microsystems designed the <a href="/facts/Java_(software_platform)/fpn6x8WL">Java platform</a> to meet both of these goals.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/End-to-end_principle/6RkKmdUm">End-to-end principle</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Greenspun%2527s_tenth_rule/THjdwXpY">Greenspun's tenth rule</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Conway%2527s_law/75CbY5VT">Conway's law</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Not_invented_here/3WCtF6Qs">Not invented here</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Plain_old_Java_object/sTUnd6MN">Plain old Java object</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Second-system_effect/s0aacFGf">Second-system effect</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Jamie_Zawinski/IqqeUzrp">Zawinski's law of software envelopment</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://thedailywtf.com/articles/The_Inner-Platform_Effect">Original definition and example</a></li>
<li><a href="https://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Enterprise_Rules_Engine.aspx">Example: The Enterprise Rules Engine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://thedailywtf.com/Articles/I_Think_I_0x27_ll_Call_Them__0x26_quot_0x3b_Transactions_0x26_quot_0x3b_.aspx">Example: I Think I'll Call Them "Transactions"</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/AntiPatterns/BSSJC6os">AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis</a> by William J. Brown et al.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Celko, Joe (1 February 2011). "Look-up Tables in SQL". Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160923153856/https://www.simple-talk.com/sql/t-sql-programming/look-up-tables-in-sql-/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160923153856/https://www.simple-talk.com/sql/t-sql-programming/look-up-tables-in-sql-/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Peterson, Don (8 September 2004). "Lookup Table Madness". Retrieved 1 May 2023. <a href="https://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/lookup-table-madness" target="_blank">https://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/lookup-table-madness</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Inner-platform effect open-in-new

Inner-platform effect