Choosing Tools Carefully.
Giovanni Asproni's advice is to carefully choose the tools you use in building modern applications. Nowadays, applications are typically assembled using existing tools such as components, libraries, and frameworks, for several reasons including saving time, using higher quality software, lowering development costs, and having access to developers with necessary expertise. However, selecting the right combination of tools for your application can be difficult and requires some consideration. It's important to keep in mind that different tools may have varying assumptions about context and can result in an architectural mismatch between the application and tools. Additionally, different tools have varying lifecycles and upgrading one can become a complicated task. Some tools require significant configuration, and vendor lock-in can be an issue. It's also essential to pay attention to licensing terms even for free software.
To mitigate these issues, Asproni suggests starting small and only using the tools that are necessary. The focus should be on removing the need for low-level infrastructure programming, such as using middleware instead of raw sockets. If needed, more tools can be added later, and it's important to isolate external tools from business domain objects using interfaces and layering. This approach can result in a smaller application that uses fewer external tools than originally planned.