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1. Nolan (nolan@toot.cafe)'s status on Monday, 21-Oct-2024 16:38:33 UTC Nolan

   Every time I mess around with sysadmin stuff, I'm always flummoxed by dumb things like "what is the difference between /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin, what the heck is an LD_LIBRARY_PATH, should I use sudo for this build tool or not," etc.). I guess this is how backend devs feel when they have to tweak a Webpack config.

   • Nolan (nolan@toot.cafe)'s status on Monday, 21-Oct-2024 16:38:32 UTC Nolan

     in reply to

     Maybe this is why I'm a little skeptical of the whole "move everything to Rust/Zig/Go/etc" movement in the JS ecosystem. I like JavaScript, I understand JavaScript. If I have to debug some JS tool, I'm well-equipped. Whereas if I have to dip down into some weird error like "libfoo.so.42: cannot open shared object file" then I know I'm gonna get lost.

     Plus I don't think we've come close to exhausting all the ways to optimize JS deps: https://marvinh.dev/blog/speeding-up-javascript-ecosystem/

     jartigag repeated this.
   • Juanlu (astrojuanlu@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 21-Oct-2024 16:38:32 UTC Juanlu

     in reply to

     @nolan Every ecosystem having this debate apparently :) (Python with uv, ruff)

     As a Python person, and as a developer who tries to get things done, I use tools that I never, ever want to debug. That includes git, shell utilities, code formatters, and more.

     I want these tools to just work. If they don't, I'll assume there's a 99 % chance it's my fault. I'll open an issue, find a workaround and move on, not waste a weekend tinkering with it.

     Abstraction enables productivity and tight feedback.