4 ms·

Yeah - my first thought, on seeing the list, "the project is completely out of control and it's amazing that it works as well as it does!" I guess it's a tribu

Yeah - my first thought, on seeing the list, "the project is completely out of control and it's amazing that it works as well as it does!" I guess it's a tribute to what you can get if you throw enough money and effort at something! They must be running flat-out just keeping the project going and the ever-changing product running. Just imagine what they could have done with that money & effort, if it was spent on clear, focused projects.

jeffbee 4y ago
If you see evidence like this that conflicts with your prejudices, it should make you rethink your prejudices, not denounce the evidence. Facts we are aware of: Chrome is an extremely successful project with many users and developers, and it uses flag-oriented feature control. Your prejudice: flag-oriented feature switches are "out of control". Now, how are you going to reconcile this? Doesn't it call into question the utility of your prejudice? This is demonstrably an extremely successful project that ignores your rule.
- drpixie 4y ago
  I've been around enough projects to pick up on warning signs :) That google has been able to manage such a project is truly impressive. Chrome is clearly the most popular browser out there but, for me, popularity counts for little. Chrome is also extremely heavyweight by most measures (installed size, memory usage, cpu usage, build time!) Re popularity: Imagine you're at a retail store buying a coffee maker. They tell you "this model is very popular". For something that people purchase/install occasionally, popularity isn't a good indicator of quality, though it might be a good indicator of price, advertising, feature-list, or sales commission! Personally, I want my coffee maker to make great coffee, and to keep doing that for a long time. And I want my browser to be fast, lightweight, and minimally intrusive.
  - joshuamorton 4y ago
    The "it uses lots of memory" argument is sort of silly. That's the behavior you want. Unused ram is wasted, as long as chrome is willing to play nice and free it, using otherwise unused memory to prefetch/cache is good user experience.

jeffbee 4y ago

If you see evidence like this that conflicts with your prejudices, it should make you rethink your prejudices, not denounce the evidence. Facts we are aware of: Chrome is an extremely successful project with many users and developers, and it uses flag-oriented feature control. Your prejudice: flag-oriented feature switches are "out of control". Now, how are you going to reconcile this? Doesn't it call into question the utility of your prejudice? This is demonstrably an extremely successful project that ignores your rule.

drpixie 4y ago
I've been around enough projects to pick up on warning signs :) That google has been able to manage such a project is truly impressive. Chrome is clearly the most popular browser out there but, for me, popularity counts for little. Chrome is also extremely heavyweight by most measures (installed size, memory usage, cpu usage, build time!) Re popularity: Imagine you're at a retail store buying a coffee maker. They tell you "this model is very popular". For something that people purchase/install occasionally, popularity isn't a good indicator of quality, though it might be a good indicator of price, advertising, feature-list, or sales commission! Personally, I want my coffee maker to make great coffee, and to keep doing that for a long time. And I want my browser to be fast, lightweight, and minimally intrusive.
- joshuamorton 4y ago
  The "it uses lots of memory" argument is sort of silly. That's the behavior you want. Unused ram is wasted, as long as chrome is willing to play nice and free it, using otherwise unused memory to prefetch/cache is good user experience.