The Fossil documentation has this gem: > "The global state of a fossil repository is kept simple so that it can endure in useful form for decades or centuries.

The Fossil documentation has this gem: > "The global state of a fossil repository is kept simple so that it can endure in useful form for decades or centuries. A fossil repository is intended to be readable, searchable, and extensible by people not yet born." I always liked that they planned for the long-term. Keeping that in mind helps you build systems that will work in 10 years, or in 100, if it happens to last that long. When you are building a foundation, like a language or database, it is nice to plan for long term support since so much depends on it. C has stayed mostly recognizable over the years, much more so than C++ or other high level languages. When your design is simple, you can have a "feature complete" end.