On Bloat and Ingrates

gemini://gemini.dimakrasner.com/re-bloat.gmi

and to all line-counters in general:

While I appreciate a friendly abstract discussion about minimalism and what's an appropriate number of LOCs in an application, let's not get too carried away.

It is not your job to critique someone who's accomplished something wonderful, based on the size of their sources. If Lagrange is too many SLOCs for you, don't use it, and don't use it quietly, please. Maybe write a post about how your tiny app is better.

The 'fully functional client in 100 lines' is a canard. The 'weekend project' is pure bullshit. If you think dumping gemtext to stdout and figuring out relative URLs in your head is fully functional, then sure, 100 lines, not counting the libraries. If you want bookmarks and client certificates, and text that doesn't make you vomit, forgive our founding father for the marketing blurb and move on.

Gemini is not going to break because Lagrange has too many wrappers or lines of code.

Gemini is not going to be saved by bitching about complexity or 'UNIX philosophy'.

You've already driven at least one developer out by being ungrateful assholes.

No one is obligated to write software to your specifications, or rather, vague ideas about language or size. It is a privilege to have at our disposal great free/opensource software. Someone has worked hard to create something wonderful, and the implementation is their choice - and they don't need to be shamed and have to defend their decisions. If you have an idea about how to improve it, great. Think you can do better? Go for it. If all you can do is count lines, that's a good accomplishment, I suppose. Learn algebra next.

Say thank you. Report bugs. Write great software yourself, with as many lines of code as you feel appropriate, if that's your thing.

Don't be a douchebag.

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