Re: (Excessive?) Complexity

On 2/8/25 2:31 PM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 08/02/2025 18:57, Lars Poulsen wrote:

On 2025-02-08, WokieSux282@ud0s4.net <WokieSux283@ud0s4.net> wrote:

    Anyway, of late, software "improvements" have
    too often been the exact opposite. What alien
    universe do these 'improvers' COME from ???
>
    IMHO, a lot of this is just "busy work" from
    people looking for something to do. Their
    idea of "better" means "better for ME - and
    screw YOU". It's not better for the average,
    or even professional, user.
>
    Maybe we need a new branch ... Linux-2004 ...
    with all the good stuff and none of these
    "improvements" ??? Linux and related was
    damned good from the start, SOLID by 2004.
>
    It worked. It was kinda simple. You COULD
    figure it out without committing suicide.
    NOW, it just seems to be becoming an
    incomprehensible ever-mutating MESS - Winders
    by another name.

>
Much of the complexity that you do not approve of, seems to me to be
related to Linux's ambition to produce code that works on everything
from an embedded IoT device to a high-performance laptop to a clustered
datacenter rack from a single set of source files.
>
Back "in the Golden Age", the spectrum of systems that the code was
expected to support was much narrower; that would tend to make the code
much simpler and more readable.

 Nah. Its the stupidity not of using an oriented *approach* to design code, but of putting it into the frickin language and making everyone use it.

   Well, I kind-of understand his issue. The problem these
   days is SO-MANY-PLATFORMS. Developers, and esp their
   pointy-haired bosses, want a one-fits-all application.
   Alas this results in INSANE, un-debuggable, complexity.
   Aiming for more narrow platforms is probably the better
   way. The 90% required/functional code can be preserved,
   but all the crap required to suit *a* platform can be
   largely unique. Seems less-efficient, but is more solid.
   But who cares about 'solid' these days ? Make something
   arty and flashy, get the users cash - then ignore all
   their complaints. It's a Business Model .....
   Remember the "bad old days" when we had Atari, Apple,
   Commodore, Tandy, TRS-80, ROM systems, CP/M, DOS ?
   It was just not feasible to write an "everything"
   application. A lot had to be customized to the
   particular platform. This made for a number of
   smaller, tuned, applications which WERE debuggable
   and comprehensible. Today really isn't SO different,
   but tends to be disguised - resulting in bloatware.