6 ms·

Never understood this comment. What's so wrong with the registry?

andrewstuart 7y ago
Have you ever had chewing gum stuck in your hair? Same thing. The problem with the registry is that it's a complex mess that can't be pulled apart and it's not modular. A clean operating system would separate applications cleanly from each other so they can be configured in an isolated manner, installed and uninstalled cleanly without leaving remnants of themselves in the operating system gumming up the works. If you use Windows then you are probably used to Windows slowing down over time and you've probably just come to accept that you have to reinstall every so often because it has all become so slow. IMO that is at least partly, if not substantially attributable to the registry. By way of comparison, I'm still using the first build of Macintosh OS that I build 12 years ago and moved it from machine to machine. It does not slow over time. Software should be loosely coupled - the registry tightly couples a whole stack of unrelated stuff together. The Windows registry is a sticky mess of spaghetti mixed with chewing gum and glue and it can't be unwound. Operating systems should be modular, able to be pulled apart and put together in a component like manner - the registry is the opposite concept, it's a central dumphouse that links and binds things and makes it hard to impossible to have a clean operating system. Go have a look into your registry and tell me what's in there - does it make sense to you at any level at all? There you go - that's what's wrong with it.
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  > it's a complex mess > sticky mess of spaghetti mixed with chewing gum and glue and it can't be unwound. This is not how you convince someone of a position. If I said your comment here was a spaghetti mixed with chewing gun would you find that informative, let alone compelling? > If you use Windows then you are probably used to Windows slowing down over time No, this is just your stereotype from over a decade ago. > and you've probably just come to accept that you have to reinstall every so often Again, false... > IMO that is at least partly, if not substantially attributable to the registry. All these problems just to blame the registry? With absolutely no substantiation for your claims? As a Windows developer who's pretty familiar with its ins and outs (and who's run his fair share of registry defraggers/cleaners/etc. over a decade ago) and who actually pays attention to his OS performance I have never been able to measure a performance impact. > A clean operating system would separate applications cleanly from each other so they can be configured in an isolated manner, installed and uninstalled cleanly without leaving remnants of themselves in the operating system gumming up the works. I don't know what this means, but on any system programs will leave remnants on uninstall. Just diff your ~/ and /etc folders for a clean Linux system vs. one you've used for a while and then uninstalled packages from. > Operating systems should be modular, able to be pulled apart and put together in a component like manner - the registry is the opposite concept, it's a central dumphouse that links and binds things and makes it hard to impossible to have a clean operating system. "Gumming", "dumphouse", "sticky mess", "spaghetti"... these don't ground your position in anything, except maybe chewing gum. > Go have a look into your registry and tell me what's in there - does it make sense to you at any level at all? There you go - that's what's wrong with it. In fact yes it does, and in fact it shouldn't even have to make sense to a user, and only parts of it are relevant for developers, just like so many parts of any system. In my experience people who describe the registry like this last used Windows as their primary system over a decade ago, read a lot of rants about it, switched to Linux, and just kept repeating myths ever since.
  - andrewstuart 7y ago
    Let's be clear - you're saying there's nothing wrong with the registry, it's a great aspect of the architecture of Windows, and it doesn't result in applications being tightly bound, interconnected, difficult to uninstall and that bits and pieces are never left in the registry, that the registry does not contain orphaned configuration elements, it does not slow down Windows and in the past 10 years it has never needed "cleaning/defragging" as you call it? And you advocate for modern applications to use the registry for their configuration?
    - mehrdadn 7y ago
      > that the registry does not contain orphaned configuration elements How did you read my sentence "on any system programs will leave remnants on uninstall" and conclude I was claiming the above?

Have you ever had chewing gum stuck in your hair? Same thing. The problem with the registry is that it's a complex mess that can't be pulled apart and it's not modular. A clean operating system would separate applications cleanly from each other so they can be configured in an isolated manner, installed and uninstalled cleanly without leaving remnants of themselves in the operating system gumming up the works. If you use Windows then you are probably used to Windows slowing down over time and you've probably just come to accept that you have to reinstall every so often because it has all become so slow. IMO that is at least partly, if not substantially attributable to the registry. By way of comparison, I'm still using the first build of Macintosh OS that I build 12 years ago and moved it from machine to machine. It does not slow over time. Software should be loosely coupled - the registry tightly couples a whole stack of unrelated stuff together. The Windows registry is a sticky mess of spaghetti mixed with chewing gum and glue and it can't be unwound. Operating systems should be modular, able to be pulled apart and put together in a component like manner - the registry is the opposite concept, it's a central dumphouse that links and binds things and makes it hard to impossible to have a clean operating system. Go have a look into your registry and tell me what's in there - does it make sense to you at any level at all? There you go - that's what's wrong with it.

mehrdadn 7y ago
> it's a complex mess > sticky mess of spaghetti mixed with chewing gum and glue and it can't be unwound. This is not how you convince someone of a position. If I said your comment here was a spaghetti mixed with chewing gun would you find that informative, let alone compelling? > If you use Windows then you are probably used to Windows slowing down over time No, this is just your stereotype from over a decade ago. > and you've probably just come to accept that you have to reinstall every so often Again, false... > IMO that is at least partly, if not substantially attributable to the registry. All these problems just to blame the registry? With absolutely no substantiation for your claims? As a Windows developer who's pretty familiar with its ins and outs (and who's run his fair share of registry defraggers/cleaners/etc. over a decade ago) and who actually pays attention to his OS performance I have never been able to measure a performance impact. > A clean operating system would separate applications cleanly from each other so they can be configured in an isolated manner, installed and uninstalled cleanly without leaving remnants of themselves in the operating system gumming up the works. I don't know what this means, but on any system programs will leave remnants on uninstall. Just diff your ~/ and /etc folders for a clean Linux system vs. one you've used for a while and then uninstalled packages from. > Operating systems should be modular, able to be pulled apart and put together in a component like manner - the registry is the opposite concept, it's a central dumphouse that links and binds things and makes it hard to impossible to have a clean operating system. "Gumming", "dumphouse", "sticky mess", "spaghetti"... these don't ground your position in anything, except maybe chewing gum. > Go have a look into your registry and tell me what's in there - does it make sense to you at any level at all? There you go - that's what's wrong with it. In fact yes it does, and in fact it shouldn't even have to make sense to a user, and only parts of it are relevant for developers, just like so many parts of any system. In my experience people who describe the registry like this last used Windows as their primary system over a decade ago, read a lot of rants about it, switched to Linux, and just kept repeating myths ever since.
- andrewstuart 7y ago
  Let's be clear - you're saying there's nothing wrong with the registry, it's a great aspect of the architecture of Windows, and it doesn't result in applications being tightly bound, interconnected, difficult to uninstall and that bits and pieces are never left in the registry, that the registry does not contain orphaned configuration elements, it does not slow down Windows and in the past 10 years it has never needed "cleaning/defragging" as you call it? And you advocate for modern applications to use the registry for their configuration?
  - mehrdadn 7y ago
    > that the registry does not contain orphaned configuration elements How did you read my sentence "on any system programs will leave remnants on uninstall" and conclude I was claiming the above?