What is "Code over configuration"? - gulp

Question

I have seen this terms many times on the google code over configuration or configuration over code. I tried on by searching it on google, but still got nothing. Recently i started work it on gulp again the mystery came code over configuration.
Can you please tell me what is both and what is the difference on them?

Answer 1

Since you tagged this with gulp, I'll give you a popular comparision to another tool (Gruunt) to tell the difference.
Grunt’s tasks are configured in a configuration object inside the
Gruntfile, while Gulp’s are coded using a Node style syntax.
taken from here
So basically with configuration you have to give your tool the information it needs to work like it thinks it has to work.
If you focus on code you tell your tool what steps it has to complete directly.
There's quite a bunch of discussion about which one is better. You'll have to have a read and decide what fits your project best.

Answer 2

Code over configuration (followed by gulp) and the opposite configuration over code (followed by grunt) are approaches/principles in software/program development where both gulp and grunt are using for the same thing as automate tasks. The approach refers to developing programs according to typical programming conventions, versus programmer defined configurations. Both approaches has its own context / purpose and not a question of which one is better.
In gulp each tasks are a java-script function, necessarily no configuration involved up-front (although functions can normally take configuration values) and chaining multiple functions together to create a build script. Gulp use node stream. A stream basically continuously flow of data and can be manipulated asynchronously. However in grunt all the tasks are configured in a configuration object in a file and those are run in sequence.
Reference: https://deliciousbrains.com/grunt-vs-gulp-battle-build-tools/

Answer 3

Because you talked about "code" I'll try and give a different perspective.
While answering a question on figuring out IP address from inside of a docker container Docker container IP address from .net project
there are two codes possible
var ipAddress = HttpContext.Request.HttpContext.Connection.LocalIpAddress;
This will give you the IP address at runtime, but, it won't have control over it.
It can also lead to more code in the future to do something with the IP Address. Like feeding a load balancer or the likes.
I'd prefer a configuration over it.
such as
An environment variable with pre-configured IP addresses for each container service. Such as:
WEB_API_1_IP=192.168.0.10
WEB_API_2_IP=192.168.0.11
.
.
.
NETWORK_SUBNET=192.168.0.0/24
a docker-compose that ties the environment variable to IP address of the container. Such as:
version: '3.3'
services:
web_api:
.
.
.
networks:
public_net:
ipv4_address: ${WEB_API_1_IP}
.
and some .net code that links the two and give access within the code.
Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) =>
{
config.AddEnvironmentVariables();
})
The code that we wrote is about reading through the configuration.
But it gives way better control. Depending on what environment you are running it you could have different environment files.
The subnet the number of machine they are all configured options rather than tricky code which requires more maintenance and is error prone.