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0 pointsJdeBP2y ago0 comments

I've said before, elsewhere, that I think that that cartoon is misleading. The truth, as should be apparent nowadays after the parade of leftpad, ntpd, xz, et al., is that there are thousands of those little blocks at the bottom that have a bus factor of 1 volunteer. There aren't any big long base blocks at all. And sometimes the little blocks seem as if they have been set up by domino topplers. (-:

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4 comments · 2 top-level

cbolton2y ago· 1 in thread

But for the comics' physical analogy to work you'd then need to draw it in thousands of dimensions so that any block breaking would bring down the edifice...

TeMPOraL2y ago

Or draw them all bent and straining under the load, implying that any one of them failing will cause a cascade that brings the house down.

(Though come to think of it, that would make the analogy less accurate, not more, by implying interdependency where there is none.)

bayindirh2y ago· 1 in thread

> There aren't any big long base blocks at all.

Linux Kernel. libc. Compilers. Programming Languages. Big libraries like filesystems, while generally not open source, system ROMs. Tons of network and system RFCs, standards like POSIX.

These are these long, wide, thin slabs you don't see. Others are too high level. These slabs are very close to metal. You're not kneeling enough. :)

humanrebar2y ago

Compilers and programming languages tend to be under supported (or overcomitted?) for what it's worth. They're definitely not solo projects, but certain features and components can be basically that way.

I take some of the recent concern from the Rust community about burnout and such to be early stage discovery of the economic problems in maintaining nontrivial infrastructure as a common good.

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