On: “I Could Rewrite Curl”

[stephc_int13]

Sometimes this is not completely wrong.

I never used Curl or looked at the source code, I don't know about the specifics, but rewriting a simpler copycat from scratch is not always a bad idea.

I've done that a few times, to prove a point or because the original was bad and too difficult to maintain.

[viraptor → stephc_int13]

This reminds me of bocker. (https://github.com/p8952/bocker) A minimal docker in 100 lines of bash.

[ceejayoz → viraptor]

A great example, in that there are six year old (important looking!) PRs sitting there without any feedback or action.

Ongoing maintenance of this nature is something often ignored by the "I could rewrite that, easy" folks.

[viraptor → ceejayoz]

It's a joke / PoC project. Nobody should expect it to be maintained in any way. None of those PRs are important in that way.

[ceejayoz → viraptor]

> Nobody should expect it to be maintained in any way.

Which is the exact problem of "I could rewrite this in a weekend!" scenario with curl, right?

[viraptor → ceejayoz]

It depends if the rewrite is meant as a joke or a serious minimal implementation.

[ceejayoz → viraptor]

I don't think it does. curl has been maintained for nearly 25 years now; there's a benefit to that, and I'd need someone to come up with very compelling reasons to write a new implementation before abandoning it beyond "my code is shorter".