this post was submitted on 19 May 2021
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Thoughts on suckless software? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Their software is kinda neat, but I prefer the simplicity of configs more rather than editing and building C. I don't really like their elitist ideology though.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago (1 children)

The thing about configs vs C is that many apps have their own config conventions, they deviate a lot from one implementation to another and you have to study their documentation (if it exists).
C on the other hand is one standard, some things differ in conventions in libraries, but most standard ones hold to one convention and you may apply solution from one adaptation to different suckless programs.
Of course it requires knowlege of C and the technology application works on, but that's not entirely true.
Thing is while other configs have their own documentation, C language has many books, standards, articles code snippets et cetera, which is C's documentation (sort of).
I guess it is inherently hard to understand for regular individual that while configurable apps explicitely direct you to the config documentation, suckless software doesn't do that with directing to C books because that should be merely obvious.
Suckless software is definitely not for all and it isn't universal (in some sense) but that's how it can stay simple, elegant and maintain small codebase.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Some additional info and explanations:

Of course it requires knowlege of C and the technology application works on, but that’s not entirely true.
You don't technically need to be a compsci major to copy/modify code from stackoverflow or snippets from the email archives.
Suckless software is definitely not for all and it isn’t universal (in some sense)
It is universal in that it does things according to specifications and is simple so there's not a lot to break.
Also not universal because stuff like accessibility aren't considered too much even though most of that software is text based, so should be compatible with i.e. screen readers.
Elitism may be a problem but it doesn't stand in a way of user. The codebase is not limited to work only for elitists and participation in the community is not mandatory. As almost always in every community, not everyone in suckless community is an elitist and its based on particular individual.