Date: 2018-07-19
Categories: misc

The state of computing in 2018

The OCaml development team, consisting of some of the most talented programmers around, are currently adding "filename quote" and "command line argument quote" functions. The github pull request is here.

What I like about this pull request is that it exemplifies the problems people face trying to work with crummy or broken tools. A simple task (quote a filename; quote an argument) becomes so complicated that it would literally take hours and hours to explain to the uninitiated what the problems are.

At one point the great Xavier himself says "Your example is too complicated for me to follow." So in fact it is difficult to explain the issues even to the smartest people on the planet. If quoting a string is so incredibly difficult, what hope for mere mortals on more involved tasks?

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