> I take a practical approach. I use simple programs when
> they do the job well, and more complex programs when
> they get the job done better. Sometimes a simple program
> can be useful for certain jobs, such as ones involving
> shell scripting, whereas a complex program may be more
> useful for example in other applications, such as using
> Solidworks for engineering work. LaTeX is certainly a
> bloated monstrosity, but the damn thing is useful for a
> lot of different tasks.
>
> People on this email list tend to go to an extreme in
> favoring simplicity above all else, which is why they
> release dumpster fires like the ST terminal emulator for
> example which has absolutely no features at all, is
> riddled with bugs and compatibility problems, and
> requires extensive patching to add in any useful
> features. The developers are also basement-dwelling
> losers, total raging assholes who take personal offense
> to the suggestion that their code should be better
> commented or that someone might fork the code to make an
> improved version.
>
> I tried ST for a time before realizing it was trash and
> just switched back to Xterm, the gold standard of
> functional X11 terminal emulators, which the ST
> developers talked shit about, calling "bloated" in their
> documentation, and saying the code wasn't good. Actually
> it is not bloated, the code quality is much higher than
> ST (and is actually commented!), It Just Works(TM), and
> it's noticeably faster as well when ST is patched with
> the juvenile "scrollback buffer support"
> implementation--which calls malloc() once for every
> line(!) of the scrollback buffer.
>
> Take anything that a religious cult member says with a
> grain of salt.
>
> Dave
Oof, I feel like that's gonna start one hell of a flame war
right now.
About suckless's software. Personally, I've got an
impression that it's not about personal use. Like, you
aren't really expected to install ST as you main and
everyday terminal. These programs are more of a collection
of tools that should be combined and embedded as a
foundation for something bigger.
Firefox will always be better than surf, it just will. But
replacing Firefox is not what surf should strive for. It's
more of a tool for situations when you need an ability to
embed a website and full-blown Firefox or Chrome will be an
overkill.
That said, if there are any compatibility problems _(which
there probably are, since why shouldn't there be any
compatibility problems when your main goal when writing
software is to make it as small as possible)_ than that kind
of ruins the whole purpose of all of this...
--
Nikita
Received on Tue Jul 04 2023 - 20:49:23 CEST