[bluquark]

> The developers who are stuck with this specific compression algorithm have no choice but to do the best with what they've got.

Right. The point I wanted to make is that with the exception of game developers, who have a unique freedom to define their set of requirements and design a vertically integrated system to solve them, every developer faces their own version of this.

So I agree games are a useful reference point to conceptualize what's possible after an extended transition plan to migrate ecosystems to new standards. But I don't agree with the framing of "no excuses". It takes heroic efforts and wisdom to break out of ecosystem local maximums. For example, when image transcoding to newer formats has been tried, users hated how other software didn't read it correctly if they tried to save or reshare it. So with the latest attempt (JpegXL) they're aiming to gather industrywide support instead of acting unilaterally.

We should cheer orders-of-magnitude performance improvements in the rare cases when a migration can be successfully coordinated to so do, instead of being unduly negative about the normal expected case when it isn't.

[int_19h]

The PNG example is a case of a well-established standard limiting what you can do - basically, improvement is only possible by breaking compatibility.

But this is not the case for the vast majority of slow software. Nor is there any equivalent problem there. It really is, as the article describes, a case of devs not caring to put the time because the users tolerate the status quo.