Initial setup time: for reference, Oberon (a complete workstation, from HW ISA/circuit board/OS/language through graphical apps) required 8 person years. (calen

Initial setup time: for reference, Oberon (a complete workstation, from HW ISA/circuit board/OS/language through graphical apps) required 8 person years. (calendar years: no doubt they also had teaching duties and committee work) Spartan, but much more approachable than ColorForth. If you need all the LSP stuff, DIY is not for you. Plaintext editors are easy, easier even than compilers. If you write things that need optimisation, DIY is not for you. If you DIY at the machine code level, cross platform is an issue of additional work, but not (well, at least from the 3rd platform on) complexity. Cross compilation being difficult is one of the accidental complexities of the mainstream. Anyone who calls themself a hacker should be familiar with those algorithm families, and more, whether they DIY or not. I'd argue that forcing yourself to learn that diversity is probably the best reason to DIY; practicality is certainly not one. (If you can't do the digital equivalent of sleeping rough, DIY is not for you)