Self-reliant programmer manifesto
yobibyte.github.io
Self-reliant programmer manifesto
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#2Those "over complex" code bases like curl handle a lot of edge cases. Your 300 lines of C is starting over and relearning what they already learned.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#3Good intention, lacking in detailed follow through.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#4This phenomenon of bad software isn’t new. Vernor Vinge mentioned this in passing in A Deepness In The Sky.
I do agree with the nature of self sufficiency. That is the start of durability. Most people find this revolting though. The goal, for most people, isn’t stuff that works properly. The goal is inclusion and comfort, a social baseline opposed to a utility baseline.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#5The author is on to something with this essay.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#6Those "over complex" code bases like curl handle a lot of edge cases. Your 300 lines of C is starting over and relearning what they already learned.
I agree! However in many cases, these edge cases (I'm not speaking of curl now) are not needed for my personal use. E.g. if I use linux/windows/os, I do not care about how my tool behaves on the other os, I do not want to support all kind of hardware etc. If I am the only users, I can prune these use-cases (and features I mentioned in the post) significantly. E.g. I reimplement a subset of vim at the moment, I do not use LSPs or syntax highlighting in my work, I do not need to implement support for them in my editor.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#7I hoped it would most of all meant not using LLMs, but this is good as well
At some point we might be able to be confident that the current version of all our dependecies has been carefully reviewed by enough reliable people, but right now we're not even moving in that direction; so, minimizing the dependencies is the proper thing to do.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#8Archaeologists have discovered Sumerian cuneiform tablets which complain that software quality isn't what it used to be.
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#9Those "over complex" code bases like curl handle a lot of edge cases. Your 300 lines of C is starting over and relearning what they already learned.
and a lot of legacy baggage.
We should begin collecting and centralizing the insights learned from the development of software outside the source code of specific projects
Re: Self-reliant programmer manifesto
#10Those "over complex" code bases like curl handle a lot of edge cases. Your 300 lines of C is starting over and relearning what they already learned.
I agree! However in many cases, these edge cases (I'm not speaking of curl now) are not needed for my personal use. E.g. if I use linux/windows/os, I do not care about how my tool behaves on the other os, I do not want to support all kind of hardware etc. If I am the only users, I can prune these use-cases (and features I mentioned in the post) significantly. E.g. I reimplement a subset of vim at the moment, I do not…
I'm thinking of something like curl specifically where the edge case isn't your machine, it's the machine you're talking to. Can I write my own curl-like downloader in a few hundred lines of code? Yes. Is it going to work first try with a 30 year old apache file server? Probably not. Do I want something that works "good enough" which breaks when I'm in the middle of a time crunch... or do I want something production tested that's probably not going to fail on me at the worst possible moment.
I'm willing to accept a little bloat and pass on inventing wheels myself if I can grab something reliable off the shelf. I don't think that makes me less self reliant.