[racked]

I actually thought that last paragraph really undermined his case, because rather than substantiating like he did before, here he goes all out and just insults whoever he can think of; people who take it in the ass, greybeards, the Chinese, listeners of bland music...

I get him though. It's one of those writings from a foul mood. There was probably more going on in his life than some trouble dealing with locales.

[Maken]

To be fair, he has other issues than dealing with C locales. The author of that commit used to be the main developer behind mpv, until he decided to delete all support for GNOME in a single commit.

[iforgotpassword]

That gnome even needs special support says it all. Does the commit have a similarly funny commit message?

[simoncion]

> ...here he goes all out and just insults whoever he can think of...

No, he observes that software devs as a group, and as a culture tend to produce worse results than incredibly-distracted and certainly-fatally-intoxicated simians banging on typewriters.

It's a bit of hyperbole, but the overall state of software is absolutely dire.

> ...the Chinese, listeners of bland music...

In some-to-much of the world, it's pretty well-known that a lot of cheap crap (much of which has historically been made in China) is very shoddily made and fairly quickly finds its way to the landfill. One shouldn't confuse criticism of shoddily-made products for criticism of the citizens of the country of origin of said products.

I'd also expect the referenced (certainly entirely-hypothetical) CD to be something that ends up getting thrown into the dumpster in huge numbers because store inventory managers expect it to be WAY more popular than it actually ends up being. Also, see above about not getting confused about what the target of the insult is. ;)

> There was probably more going on in his life than some trouble dealing with locales.

shrug Not everyone chooses to write in sterile $DAYJOB-approved language when explaining in detail the root of their frustration with the absolutely bullshit garbage pile they have to build upon for their non-corporate side project.

[stavros]

> much of which has historically been made in China

The "Chinese crap" argument fails to realize that yes, all cheap crap is made in China, because everything is made in China.

Nobody looks at an iPhone and says "ugh, Chinese crap".

[simoncion]

> Nobody looks at an iPhone and says "ugh, Chinese crap".

Well, the really important parts are Taiwanese crap. ;)

But (more seriously), the thing to remember is that the "Chinese crap" stereotype dates back to the days when China didn't have a notable electronics assembly industry... so nearly all the crap hitting US shores was cheap crap. Japan was the big Asian tech producer back then, and we still did a substantial bit of consumer (and industrial) electronics production in-country.

[racked]

> No, he observes that software devs as a group, and as a culture tend to produce worse results than (...)

Yeah, to that I say "meh". Maybe. In my view, on a different day he would have hacked in a workaround, explained quickly that it is because of the illogical locale system, cited a few sources and moved on with his life. Sure, man-made stuff is a mess. Nothing's ever perfect. But stuff's particularly not perfect when you're in an absolutely foul mood.

It's unconstructive to entertain the thought that software in general is awful. A waste of energy. Reading his rant, I just think "improve it and move on"!

> One shouldn't confuse criticism of shoddily-made products for criticism of the citizens of the country of origin of said products.

Yeah, fair enough. There's different ways to interpret it. Maybe a proud modern Chinese person would be mildly offended by it. No biggie, the point was: in the last paragraph, he's firing a machine gun. A full release of rage.

> Not everyone chooses to write in sterile $DAYJOB-approved language

Of course. It feels great to talk bad when you're in a shit mood. I don't know about you though, but the next day I usually wish I'd just kept my cool. :-)

[simoncion]

> In my view, on a different day he would have hacked in a workaround, explained quickly that it is because of the illogical locale system, cited a few sources and moved on with his life.

If you were this guy, sure. I advise you to carefully re-read the ~2,200 word essay contained in that commit message bearing foremost in mind that there exist people who intentionally write messages that make their frustration plain and obvious.

> No biggie, the point was: in the last paragraph, he's firing a machine gun.

No, that's a wrap-up, and it fits the tone of the rest of the essay.

> It feels great to talk bad when you're in a shit mood. I don't know about you though, but the next day I usually wish I'd just kept my cool.

1) I doubt that you're the sort of person to write an angry, in-depth ~2,200 word essay and then regret it the next day. To be clear, I expect that you would not put that much effort into writing something that clearly and frankly expresses your frustration.

2) Did you forget about this statement in the opening paragraph of the essay?

> To justify this emotional outbreak potentially insulting to unknown persons, I will write a lot of text. Those not comfortable with toxic language should pretend this is a religious text.

The tone is deliberate and intentional. Please adjust your worldview to include the existence of people who get angry about stupid bullshit and then write and publish in-depth, angry essays about exactly how stupid that bullshit is.