February 2012
2 posts
Functionless Programming
In my last post I gave my take on why every API is flawed. I realize that sounds defeatist but consider that it’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are a multitude of problems with programming today, and even if we set out to solve each one, we have to consider that the rest of the world isn’t likely to follow our example. So instead of changing the world, I want to talk about how I...
Every API is Flawed
Apologists annoy me. As hackers, we make all kinds of excuses for why things are a certain way, and then we route around the damage and encapsulate it away inside our own APIs. John Carmack once said (as I recall) that if a system API is good enough, then we don’t need a library. Libraries (especially open source) exist because of fundamental flaws in operating systems that make them...