Re: SSD TBW

On 8/24/2026 4:44 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:45:55 -0700, Don Y wrote:
> 
>> On 8/23/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>>
>>> So really, what you’ve got there is one giant bloated executable
>>> that has to subsume the functions of what, in the Linux/*nix world,
>>> would be a dozen separate tools -- including the format-guessing
>>> functions of libmagic plus its own custom file explorer, it would
>>> seem. Only in a less flexible, more monolithic form.
>>
>> It is extensible.  Ditto for CVS's handling of diff and merge.
>>
>> What you (don't yet!) have in your UNIX approach is many executables
>> scattered around the file system, possibly not installed, and
>> something that tries to invoke each based on some criteria.
> 
> The same applies to plugins for your “extensible” app.

The "plugins" will likely be in a subfolder of the tool's installation
folder.  Not littered around bin, sbin, usr/sbin, usr/bin, etc.  You
will open the folder and *see* what you have in place -- instead of
wandering the filesystem looking for "components".

> Only the Unix
> tools offer a somewhat broader range of functionality in a more
> versatile form. And we have package managers nowadays to manage
> installation in a more tidy and scalable way.

And you can require your machine to be online to take advantage
of those things!

Is diff multithreaded?  Can I run 20 compares simultaneously?
Or, do I have to build a shell script to spawn 20 compares and
feed the rest of the files to it as each compare completes?

I can already *do* these things.  Your argument is I *shouldn't*!
(because text is king!)

C'mon, I grew up with MULTICS so UNIX was just like an in-law.
And, have been running a BSD since 1993 (when you had to DL
240K files and cram 5 on a 5" floppy and 6 on a 3.5" to do
the install).  I don't need a lecture on the "merits" of
any particular approach -- or their costs/consequences!

Yet, I sorely limit the tools that I use *under* UNIX because it
just doesn't support the state of the art in most tool domains.
I'm willing to embrace binary, proprietary file formats for
the power they give me and the range of tools I can use.  I've
not even touched on CAD/EDA tools or multimedia authoring, etc.

[Of course, "programmers" don't deal with such things!]

You seem to want to prevent yourself from taking advantage
of those options solely because of the constraints your
(chosen!) VCS imposes!