Source
- URL: https://x.com/icculus/status/1955691366228414484
- Author: Ryan C. Gordon (@icculus)
- Posted: 2025-08-13 18:02:11
Thread
1/ @icculus
Another reason to love @ladybirdbrowser. :)
2/ @Jonathan_Blow
@icculus @ladybirdbrowser
No, why can’t we just use actual APIs for things? Why does everything have to be badly wrapped by other things before it can be used?
3/ @icculus
@Jonathan_Blow @ladybirdbrowser
What’s the actual API the browser is supposed to use to decide how an arbitrary set of buttons and axes on a random joystick maps to the standard console-style controller layout?
4/ @Jonathan_Blow
@icculus @ladybirdbrowser
Literally everyone everywhere has had to solve this problem over and over redundantly in many many many copies of essentially the same code, but somehow we can’t fucking get it together.
5/ @Jonathan_Blow
@icculus @ladybirdbrowser
It’s just fucking stupid. I’m sorry but it’s like we have an IQ ceiling that is pretty low and because we never get above that, we are doomed to keep doing the same stupid thing for eternity.
6/ @fredolinhares
@Jonathan_Blow @icculus @ladybirdbrowser
Software development is engineering, not science. This is why.
7/ @Jonathan_Blow
@fredolinhares @icculus @ladybirdbrowser
Typing the same thing over and over and over is not even engineering.
8/ @fredolinhares
In engineering, there are several ways to solve the same problem. So people will always redo the same thing, just a little differently, because they can.
It is possible to design good APIs that almost never change (like the C language) and solve a lot of problems “once for all.” However, many engineers (or, if this term pleases you more, software developers) and consumers overall share the sentiment that “change is progress.” So we have these problems where people keep making things more complex, instead of more stable, because it feels like “progress.” The only way I see to fix it is to lead by example.