show transcript

compiler-specific posts:
every software is like. your mission-critical app requires you to use the scrimble protocol to squeeb some snorble files for sprongle expressions. do you use:

  • libsnorble-2-dev, a C library that the author only distributes as source code and therefore must be compiled from source using CMake
  • Squeeb.js, which sort of has most of the features you want, but requires about a gigabyte of Node dependencies and has only been in development for eight months and has 4.7k open issues on Github
  • Squeeh.js, a typosquatting trojan that uses your GPU to mine crypto if you install it by mistake
  • Sprongloxide, a Rust crate beloved by its fanatical userbase, which has been in version 0.9.* for about four years, and is actually just a thin wrapper for libsnorble-2-dev
  • GNU Scrimble, a GPLv3-licensed command-line tool maintained by the Free Software Foundation, which has over a hundred different flags, and also comes with an integrated Lisp interpreter for scripting, and also a TUI-based Pong implementation as an “easter egg”, and also supports CSV, XML, JSON, PDF, XLSX, and even HTML files, but does not actually come with support for squeebing snorble files for ideological reasons. it does have a boomeresque drawing of a grinning meerkat as its logo, though
  • Microsoft Scrimble Framework Core, a .NET library that has all the features you need and more, but costs $399 anually and comes with a proprietary licensing agreement that grants Microsoft the right to tattoo advertisements on the inside of your eyelids
  • snorblite, a full-featured Perl module which is entirely developed and maintained by a single guy who is completely insane and constantly makes blog posts about how much he hates the ATF and the “woke mind-virus”, but everyone uses it because it has all the features you need and is distributed under the MIT license
  • Google Squeebular (deprecated since 2017)
  • collapse_already
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    10 hours ago

    In my experience, the c library also depends on several additional libraries which is fine except it needs version 5.0+ of a library that you’re already using 3.4 of. The APIs for the library have been significantly changed, a function in the library that you heavily use has been deprecated, and upgrading to use it is more work than just implementing the desired feature yourself. The manager who suggested the library thinks you are overstating the amount of work using it will require and thinks technical debt is the money he still owes the Indian subcontractors.