Notes on Binary Soup
43 points by ingve 2 days ago | 4 comments
  • gary_0 2 days ago |
    Hmm, the library is just a handful of hundred-line-ish source files that do the bare minimum to get the job done. This is a good thing. Bad programmers have fun writing lots and lots and lots of code. Good programmers are lazy, like this.
    • marginalia_nu 2 days ago |
      It's very easy to solve problems as they come by just adding more abstractions until you have this katamari damacy ball of interfaces that's completely inscrutable. God knows I do this too sometimes.

      In contrast, this low abstraction style of programming feels like solving a sudoku. All the pieces need to fit as they are. It's more effort to get right. Think I went through 4 or 5 designs to get it as slimmed down as it is.

      • codr7 2 days ago |
        Well put, I've been working on an vm/interpreter design for several years. Which has to be low abstraction if it is to run fast enough to be useful. I keep painting myself into unforeseen corners, bad enough that refactoring is often not even an option. But having written code on a daily basis for 40-ish years, it's the only kind of code that tickles my brain anymore.
      • gary_0 2 days ago |
        It takes a surprising amount of time and effort to write fewer, simpler lines of code. (Until you have to use and maintain it...)

        "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." - Pascal