Re: code bloat [was Re: Semaphore assembly-code bug]

[Tim Hockin]

On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 02:13:37AM +0300, Denis Vlasenko wrote:
> > Bloat is cause by feature creep at every layer, not just the app.
> 
> I actually tried to convince maintainers of one package
> that their code is needlessly complex. I did send patches
> to remedy that a bit while fixing real bugs. Rejected.
> Bugs were planned to be fixed by adding more code.
> I've lost all hope on that case.

See, there is an ego problem, too.  If you rewrite my code, it means
you're better than I am.  Rejected.

Features win over efficiency.  Seriously, look at glibc.  Hav eyou ever
tried to fix a bug in it?  Holy CRAP is that horrible code.  Each chunk of
code itself is OK (though it abuses macrso so thoroughly I hesitate to
call it C code).  But it tried to support every architecture x every OS.
You know what?  I don't CARE if the glibc code compiles on HPUX or not.
HPUX has it's own libc.

> I guess this is a reason why bloat problem tend to be solved
> by rewrite from scratch. I could name quite a few cases:

From-scratch is a huge risk.  But yeah, sometimes it has to be.

> It's sort of frightening that someone will need to
> rewrite Xlib or, say, OpenOffice :(

Never gonna happen.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/