[oblio]

To the vast majority of software developers and software projects out there, except for very constrained embedded environments.

Server back ends don't care about it, front ends don't care about it despite the lip service paid, games sure as hell don't, etc

A small minority of web devs seem to care, together with creators of already gigantic mobile apps and as I was saying, embedded devs working in very constrained environments.

The market, as a whole, maybe has this as their 100th priority. Which means it's not.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

This is often the excuse we hear for why modern software is bad: "well, normal people don't care about that", a strawman argument that implies anyone who does care is abnormal and therefore worthless.

[oblio]

> anyone who does care is abnormal and therefore worthless.

No, they're not worthless, they're worth less :-)

Don't tell me, tell the business people financing everything we build. By and large, they don't care, it's reflected in incentives and it's reflected in what we build.

So yes, I stand by that strawman.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

> Don't tell me, tell the business people financing everything we build. By and large, they don't care, it's reflected in incentives and it's reflected in what we build.

Another common scapegoat for developers who write bad software. I just wish we had a little more integrity as an industry, especially since so many of us insist on calling themselves "engineers".

[oblio]

To use a more extreme example, regular engineers build tanks and jet fighters and drones and machines that make mustard gas, etc. The software world is just a reflection of the outside world, at this point.

[MaxBarraclough]

I don't think that's quite the point they're making. They're saying that small binary size doesn't always translate to user value. Technical excellence can be viewed as a goal in its own right, but it's not the same thing as user value.

[oblio]

Yeah, for 99% of software produced, smaller binary sizes do not offer increased user value.

Software designed to spec and user requirements does (where those requirements could be fast development time, high performance for whatever the performance criteria are, longevity, easy and cheap extensibility, etc.).

Binary size, as I was saying before, is like 100 on the list of priorities for most categories of software. Mobile apps sometimes have it as a priority and embedded apps frequently have it, too. But for mobile apps those limits are loosening, so soon they'll stop caring, too, and embedded apps are a minuscule percentage of all apps developed out there (most of them are web apps, especially Line of Business - LOB - apps).