Just press F5

Just press F5

There are certain tools that every developer relies on.

• Git.
• The IDE
• Stack Overflow.
• Coffee
• F5

I reckon I press F5 about a million times a day.

Make a change.   F5.

Make another change.   F5.

Change something else because that didn't work.   F5.

Stare at the screen.   F5.

I'm not entirely sure what pressing F5 is going to achieve at this point, but there's something comforting about it. It's basically the developer equivalent of turning something off and on again.

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The F5 ritual

You make a change to some code and you know it's going to work. So you save it. You look at the screen...Nothing?

Press F5

Still nothing?

Press F5 again

Still nothing?

Then you start pressing it slightly harder. As though the computer might not have fully understood you the first time.

F5. F5. F5.

Eventually, something changes. Success! Obviously, the F5 fixed it.

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Sometimes things get more complicated.

You don't just press F5, you press Ctrl + F5.

That's serious stuff.

Ctrl + F5 basically says: “Right. Forget everything you thought you knew and load the bloody thing again.”

It's the big gun. The nuclear option.

And when Ctrl + F5 doesn't work? That's when you know you're in trouble.

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What if F5 broke?

I've occasionally wondered what would happen if the F5 key stopped working.

I'd be stuffed. Completely stuffed. I'd probably spend the first five minutes pressing it anyway.

Then I'd press it harder. Then I'd press it with a different finger. Then I'd check the keyboard. Then I'd Google “how to refresh without F5”.

Eventually I'd discover that there are other ways of doing it, but by then I'd have wasted half an hour and probably ordered a new keyboard.

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The funny thing is, F5 isn't actually doing anything particularly clever. It's just a button.

But somehow it has become an essential part of the development workflow.

• Write code
• Save code
• F5

Wonder why it doesn't work.

• Change code
• F5

Change something else.

• F5.
• Ctrl + F5.
• F5 again, just in case.

It's not elegant ↦ it's not particularly scientific, but it works.

And if it doesn't...

There's always another F5.

I'm not saying developers are dependent on the F5 key.

I'm just saying I've never seen a developer voluntarily remove it from a keyboard.

And frankly, I don't want to find out what happens if someone does.