Sunday, February 02, 2025
And now some metacommentary on the artisanal code I just wrote
When I wrote the two programs to retrieve output from syslog from my public server,
the thing I did not do use was any AI program
(aka Cat)
to help with the design nor the code.
It was a simple problem with a straightforward solution and it's sad to think that more and more programmers are reaching for Cat for even simple programs.
I wonder though—is the popularity of Cat because of business demands that incentivize quick hacks to get new features and/or bug fixes and deincentivize deep knowledge or methodical implementations? Because of the constant churn of frameworks du jour and languages with constantly changing implementations? Because of sprawling code bases that not a single person can understand as a whole? Because businesses want to remove expensive programmers who might say “no”?
Anyway …
I don't expect the code I wrote to be of use for anyone else. The issue I'm solving is probably unique to me (and to the death of the true peer-to-peer Internet but I digress). But I also feel that such simple programs, ones that can be thought of as “disposable” almost, are not popular these days.
Although I'll admit that could be just a bias I'm forming from some forums I hang out on. These programs are too simple, there's no need for Docker (which is what? A tar file with some required files for use with a custom program to get around the fact that shared libraries are a mess?) or Kubernetes (which is what? A Google project Google doesn't even use but convinced enough people it's required to run at Google Scale?). Yeah, there are a few dependencies but not the hundreds you would get from using something like NodeJS.
I don't know … I'm just … in a mood.
