Same, and also not kidding. I would rather have a group of three or four well-compensated maintainers who know the codebase very well (+ newer contributors they can afford to & have time to help teach/train) releasing security and bug fixes, with, maybe *one* feature release every year or two and a clear 'it's done'/feature complete state after which it's just bug fixes and maintenence/porting.
(Early on - like in alpha, when it's not even close to feature complete, then more feature updates is fine - but if at any point it hits a "Stable" release, I want that shit to be ACTUALLY stable - which means new features come slowly, and the priority is keeping it functional and reliable.)
This entry was edited (Tuesday, June 2, 2026, 5:06 PM)
But then the boss would have fewer people to manage, and be unable to justify his job. Most software changes are about employment for engineers, not necessity. Grr.
As a software engineer I want computer languages and frameworks that stay stable for decades rather than have a new release every year that obsoletes old programs and requires a rewrite. But I don't get to have that 🙁.
@Badtux the Snarky Penguin @Eniko Fox I've written software that was "finished" only to have to update it because an underlying library introduced a breaking change. I hate that.
@me And every fifteen minutes there is a new Java release that fixes a thousand security holes and adds a thousand new features to bloat up the runtime. Meanwhile my "C" programs from the early 1990s still compile and run just fine.
@Badtux the Snarky Penguin @Eniko Fox I actually had to re-write large chunks of a program I wrote for a client because Haskell's ncurses wrapper just kind of... stopped being a thing.
Fortunately, I never liked ncurses to begin with and had abstracted much of it away. The code I'd written was fairly easy to retrofit into brick instead.
@me Substitute any other language or framework in large scale use for Java. Go? Rust? JavaScript/TypeScript? Even where the language is stable the frameworks you have to use to get work done are as firm as gelatin.
can we also get mobile operating systems that get more optimized and less resource hungry with every update so that devices can run for 10+ years before becoming obsolete?
Product: What's this ticket for, this one you're working on, it doesn't seen to be delivering any new feature? Why are we doing it?
Devs: It lets us delete a couple of thousand lines of no-longer-used code. Which will then no longer need to be maintained, tested, documented, ect ect.
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Hear hear! 👏
I'm pretty tired of downloading some 100 MB every week for Signal desktop for minor changes. And did you see how the changelog in /usr/share/doc looks like for Signal-desktop on Linux each time ? Yeah, whatever, Signal! 🤬 #signal
isnt þe unix philosophy "every program should do one job and do it well"? can we just make þat law? i would love a world where every program solved / did one þing i wanted and nþn else.
It hasn’t been updated for years, because it’s basically done. I bought it once for the price of a coffee, and now I just use it whenever I need something more than my 3 standard knots.
(I have dyslexia-but-for-ropes, and this is the only way I can learn new knots.)
Lade „Animated Knots by Grog“ von Grog LLC im App Store herunter. Sieh dir Bildschirmfotos, Bewertungen und Rezensionen, Benutzertipps und weitere Apps wie „…
I can switch on a BBC micro and load View in less time than I can wake my Windows 11 laptop and load MS Word. Seems that the faster computers become; the longer it takes to do the same things with them.
And fewer applications. Today I learned that Ubuntu now has Snapshot, as well as screenshot but that Snapshot shows up as Camera, though it didn't when it was called Cheese. This happened 2 years ago.
@maia @pouncy_panda Hey, so, when they do tattoos of pixel art, do they use big square needles, or do i just ask the lady to make the squares manually?
the fun thing is that even the non-techies want that! But instead some racers or people who only look at the competition decide we must deliver faster...
Quite honestly, I'd generally be happy with a piece of software that gets bugfixes and nothing else. The number of time some arbitrary update changes the UI for no reason and throws my whole workflow off...
I picked up Tinystart for the Mac by @nileane which is probably exactly the sort of thing you’re after. It’s as useful as Raycast but without all the VC and AI bollocks, and only costs a fiver.
the concept, way back, was The Subroutine, a compact self-contained and hopefully tested thing with inputs and outputs, as had happened in Electronics shortly before where an ocean of incompatible constructs became IC's with standard values, infinitely combine-able. This was the notion in Unix, a tinker-toy toolbox, programmable LEGO, but the tech for all this pipeworks was too much for the early home computers, so you got MSDOS instead, and MS lock-ins on "compatible components" (for your security of course)
Linux then brought the clunky unix mindset to the PC, but quickly fell into copying The Everything App like the Big Boys, trademark logos, t-shirts, booth-babes, their difference was at least they intended to be 'interoperable' between these apps, like the MS or IOS consoles, but it was still between monolithic EverythingBut Apps.
How nice it would be to have one (favourite) editor you know backwards and forwards and EVERY textbox you see uses it, not WordStar ☺️
We were once taught in computer science to attempt to refine our code to tight, elegant, complete solutions. Very small chunks of software that were complete and conceptually clear. Early on, that was required because the memory and storage resources were strictly limited. When did we decide that just because the limits were off, our coding should be complex, nasty, unreadable, and should suck?
V
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Sensitive content
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. reshared this.
V
in reply to V • • •Sensitive content
The Janx Devil
in reply to V • • •Seth Galitzer
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Badtux the Snarky Penguin
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •But then the boss would have fewer people to manage, and be unable to justify his job. Most software changes are about employment for engineers, not necessity. Grr.
As a software engineer I want computer languages and frameworks that stay stable for decades rather than have a new release every year that obsoletes old programs and requires a rewrite. But I don't get to have that 🙁.
#software #softwaredevelopment
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Badtux the Snarky Penguin • •like this
Cassandrich, Eniko Fox, Em, Kirtai 🏳️⚧️, dpflug, bjoern, Harshad Sharma, Joe W, Wolf480pl, dan1, Tiota Sram and Ruchira S. Datta like this.
reshared this
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Badtux the Snarky Penguin
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Badtux the Snarky Penguin • •@Badtux the Snarky Penguin @Eniko Fox I actually had to re-write large chunks of a program I wrote for a client because Haskell's ncurses wrapper just kind of... stopped being a thing.
Fortunately, I never liked ncurses to begin with and had abstracted much of it away. The code I'd written was fairly easy to retrofit into brick instead.
like this
Eniko Fox, Alex Celeste, Princess Consort of Burnout, dpflug and Ruchira S. Datta like this.
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Badtux the Snarky Penguin • •Badtux the Snarky Penguin
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Kirtai 🏳️⚧️
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •It's like building on quicksand.
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Kirtai 🏳️⚧️ • •Kirtai 🏳️⚧️ likes this.
Joe W
in reply to Kirtai 🏳️⚧️ • • •..but surely quicksand would make building even quicker? It's in the name, innit? 🤔
Em
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Edvin Malinovskis
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •I'm genuinely considering starting l collection of Android apps with the ethos off "The UI does! Not! Fucking! Change!"
Any feature additions are purely optional and of be default
No nag screens to promote the new stuff
Whatisgoingon
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Product: What's this ticket for, this one you're working on, it doesn't seen to be delivering any new feature? Why are we doing it?
Devs: It lets us delete a couple of thousand lines of no-longer-used code. Which will then no longer need to be maintained, tested, documented, ect ect.
Product: Great! That's what we like to hear!
🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Eniko Fox
in reply to 🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) • • •Regendans
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Hear hear! 👏
I'm pretty tired of downloading some 100 MB every week for Signal desktop for minor changes. And did you see how the changelog in /usr/share/doc looks like for Signal-desktop on Linux each time ? Yeah, whatever, Signal! 🤬 #signal
Joanie with the Good Hair 😷
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Currently, my favourite app is Out-Run, and I think it's basically been abandoned by the developer.
apps.apple.com/ie/app/out-run/…
(Yes, that's probably not great for security vulnerability reasons.. 😬)
Out-Run App - App Store
App Store四
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •craignicol
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •@Meyerweb first place to start is avoiding tracking, because those are bigger, have more updates and have more code.
The challenging part is convincing your government and bank to do the same so you can still use their services.
Jhooper
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •MeaningfulBits
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Lykso
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •I want small chunks of well-specified code with machine supported proofs so I can be certain of my program's actual behavior across its whole domain.
I should probably just learn Ada/SPARK or Idris already.
Travis F W
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •🎀𝓀𝒶𝓃𝑒𝑒𝓁🎀
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •adrien
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •rhempel
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •kkrolczyk
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •ArchiveScribe
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Z Wolf
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •I would like fewer apps, please. More websites that function as apps.
This applies specifically to mobile use. For desktop, let me download everything.
an actual bus
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •canleaf08✅ 加拿大葉子 🏳️🌈⚧️🇪🇺🍁
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •@iveyline
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Brian Swetland
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •bencourtice
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •quotequack
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Tyrone Slothrop
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •This reminds me of one of the favorite apps on my phone: Animated Knots by Grog.
apps.apple.com/de/app/animated…
It has detailed explanations of almost 200 knots, and animations on how to tie all of them.
It hasn’t been updated for years, because it’s basically done. I bought it once for the price of a coffee, and now I just use it whenever I need something more than my 3 standard knots.
(I have dyslexia-but-for-ropes, and this is the only way I can learn new knots.)
Animated Knots by Grog‑App – App Store
App StoreJohn Maxwell
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Matt Hardy 3.11 for Workgroups
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Antwan van Houdt
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Andy Wootton
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •kctipton
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Eniko Fox
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •posts on mastodon can't blow up they said
mastodon has low engagement they said
Feisty reshared this.
Pouncy Panda
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •looks like copying being the highest form of flattery is also possible in the fediverse donotsta.re/objects/67cb9b8d-f…
(eval 'Toast)
2026-06-03 11:37:35
Eniko Fox
in reply to Pouncy Panda • • •@pouncy_panda eh, that one's a bit different from mine so i wouldn't jump to conclusions
though even if someone copied it verbatim, in this case i'd probably just be happy to see this thought spreading further
Pouncy Panda
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Eniko Fox
in reply to Pouncy Panda • • •Maia
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •@pouncy_panda i instantly knew the perfect image for this and knew it had to be done (i used deathgenerator.com)
reshared this
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr., Alice Averlong🏳️⚧️, Justin To #НетВойне and Ember in the Pattern Buffer reshared this.
Eniko Fox
in reply to Maia • • •EndlessMason
in reply to Maia • • •Hey, so, when they do tattoos of pixel art, do they use big square needles, or do i just ask the lady to make the squares manually?
Eniko Fox
in reply to EndlessMason • • •the elder sea
in reply to Maia • • •@maia @pouncy_panda
Ooh this inspired me to meme it in this format:
Teoh Han Hui
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •@pouncy_panda
I think the follow-up makes it clear: donotsta.re/objects/762c34a4-2…
It's a restatement.
(eval 'Toast)
2026-06-03 11:37:59
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Eniko Fox • •Eniko Fox likes this.
Eniko Fox
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
Mx. Eddie R
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Colin
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Paul L
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •But instead some racers or people who only look at the competition decide we must deliver faster...
George B
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Den of Earth
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •About ten years ago I was being cynical when I talked about going back to VT text terminals and a single time-sharing computer.
I still think like that but I'm no longer cynical.
datarama
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Slightly Queer Basilisk
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Ruchira S. Datta
in reply to Slightly Queer Basilisk • • •gabboman the wafrn dev
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •@eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place
Anthony Sorace
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •pdx.social/@a/1159679943077847…
Anthony Sorace (@a@pdx.social)
Anthony Sorace (pdx.social)firstprimate
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Haijo
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •so do i. what you're describing sounds a lot like the unix philosophy. (do one thing and do it well)
i'm in the same boat as a lot of windows users rn. i want to switch to BSD, but i need linux for video games
Panic In The Darkroom
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Durandal
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Gabs
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •TobiWanKenobi
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •The general rule of thumb seems to be: The further you go back in time, the better the products, be they online or offline.
All courtesy of the fucked-up neoliberal capitalism that's festering across the whole world.
Kura
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •I agree. Applications shouldn't be small small, but just have one topic around them.
I don't need to micro manage everything but I dont want wechat like mega apps
Alexander The 1st
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •bignose
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •psu_13
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Mutable States - Slow Code
mutable-states.comBit Regurgitator
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Lo
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •this sounds exactly like my kinda job
(well except the paid part)
*Looks at my projects which have an update every few months with few features*
Netzblockierer
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •I want smaller, auditable, reproduceable and simple systems!
teledyn 𓂀
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •the concept, way back, was The Subroutine, a compact self-contained and hopefully tested thing with inputs and outputs, as had happened in Electronics shortly before where an ocean of incompatible constructs became IC's with standard values, infinitely combine-able. This was the notion in Unix, a tinker-toy toolbox, programmable LEGO, but the tech for all this pipeworks was too much for the early home computers, so you got MSDOS instead, and MS lock-ins on "compatible components" (for your security of course)
Linux then brought the clunky unix mindset to the PC, but quickly fell into copying The Everything App like the Big Boys, trademark logos, t-shirts, booth-babes, their difference was at least they intended to be 'interoperable' between these apps, like the MS or IOS consoles, but it was still between monolithic EverythingBut Apps.
How nice it would be to have one (favourite) editor you know backwards and forwards and EVERY textbox you see uses it, not WordStar ☺️
teledyn 𓂀
in reply to teledyn 𓂀 • • •WILLIAM B PECKHAM
in reply to Eniko Fox • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to WILLIAM B PECKHAM • •