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GitHub is a terrible metric. You probably use tools like grep and ls many times a day... you do not check if ls is up to modern standards and has a constant str

by ljm 8y ago

GitHub is a terrible metric. You probably use tools like grep and ls many times a day... you do not check if ls is up to modern standards and has a constant stream of issues and fixes. You don’t do it for grep, or git...you depend on git. You cannot apply instant gratification to software library dev. If the work for a library was done and satisfied in 2015, then it’s fucking done. It’s tried and tested. It gets security patches. It’s maintained. Recency and the last github commit is not a metric for stability or success.

lsiebert 8y ago
FWIW, git is actively being developed. I see both pull requests and traffic on the git mailing list pretty much every day.
justaj 8y ago
It would only be 'done' or 'mature' enough if there would be (almost) no bugs being listed in the Github issues, right?
leadingthenet 8y ago
There's no such thing as "done" software. Your view is incompatible with reality, I'm afraid. Yes, I did check whether ls was still actively being developed, saw that it wasn't doing anything new, and switched to exa, which is a fantastic little project, with sane defaults, less cruft, and greater speed. You can always improve software, some people just get bored of doing so, and then declare it "done". But it isn't, and it's never going to be.
- karimf 8y ago
  Paul Graham said he "finished" writing Hacker News 12 years ago. [0] This might even be more possible for "simpler" softwares. [0] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1049723540902215681 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1049723540902215681
  - krapp 8y ago
    HN and Arc are still being updated, though, just not by Paul Graham.
- IgorPartola 8y ago
  So you are like Barney from How I Met Your Mother? “What’s my other other number one rule Ted? New is always better!” How many times can you update a URL parser or leftpad? Do you need to update them just to up your GitHub activity meter?
- freewilly1040 8y ago
  Is whatever benefit you see worth the hassle when sharing scripts or setting up servers?
  - leadingthenet 8y ago
    If you mean for exa specifically, then yes. It’s mostly compatible with ls. Never caused problems in years now.

by ljm 8y ago

lsiebert 8y ago

FWIW, git is actively being developed. I see both pull requests and traffic on the git mailing list pretty much every day.

justaj 8y ago

It would only be 'done' or 'mature' enough if there would be (almost) no bugs being listed in the Github issues, right?

leadingthenet 8y ago

There's no such thing as "done" software. Your view is incompatible with reality, I'm afraid. Yes, I did check whether ls was still actively being developed, saw that it wasn't doing anything new, and switched to exa, which is a fantastic little project, with sane defaults, less cruft, and greater speed. You can always improve software, some people just get bored of doing so, and then declare it "done". But it isn't, and it's never going to be.

karimf 8y ago
Paul Graham said he "finished" writing Hacker News 12 years ago. [0] This might even be more possible for "simpler" softwares. [0] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1049723540902215681 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1049723540902215681
- krapp 8y ago
  HN and Arc are still being updated, though, just not by Paul Graham.
IgorPartola 8y ago
So you are like Barney from How I Met Your Mother? “What’s my other other number one rule Ted? New is always better!” How many times can you update a URL parser or leftpad? Do you need to update them just to up your GitHub activity meter?
freewilly1040 8y ago
Is whatever benefit you see worth the hassle when sharing scripts or setting up servers?
- leadingthenet 8y ago
  If you mean for exa specifically, then yes. It’s mostly compatible with ls. Never caused problems in years now.