[perdunov]

I completely agree that software development is such a vast field that it is completely impossible to be proficient in everything. I am kind of a lamer in web development, for example.

But fundamental CS is a different thing.

"Annnndddd.... what reaction do you expect?"

Admitting your shortcomings and try to fix them is not an option at all?

When some central web frameworks do lamest mistakes like making an O(n^2) queue, it is frightening. And instead of deflecting any critique, one may try to fix this situation somehow.

[grey-area]

Almost everyone does do lamest mistakes at some point, e.g.:

goto:fail - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7281378

shellshock - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8365110

I'm sure whoever wrote this would feel a little chagrin when coming back to their code and seeing how inefficient it was (though it got the job done when the lists were small), and they probably would admit their shortcomings, why wouldn't they?

Condescending snark is really easy, and it's easy to say in retrospect and with time to reflect that most useful code has flaws and point them out - software is never finished, and there are a lot of different levels of experience and requirements. If rubygems had never become popular, this wouldn't even be an issue.

PS Rubygems isn't a web framework, it's a package management tool, so the straw man you're hacking away at is the wrong one.

[perdunov]

Mistakes come for different reasons: the human brain's limitations; carelessness; bad methodologies; ignorance.

I was talking about the last one here.

"PS Rubygems isn't a web framework, it's a package management tool, so the straw man you're hacking away at is the wrong one."

My statement about web frameworks was not about RubyGems, it was about web frameworks, and it was an example of the state of affairs in web development.

[grey-area]

You think the original authors (Chad Fowler, Rich Kilmer, Jim Weirich) were ignorant of linked lists? What hubris.

The story is about rubygems, not web dev.

[perdunov]

I do? I was saying that being ignorant in CS may lead to lame mistakes, and I have seen many web developers who appeared ignorant in CS, and there has been a case of some central web framework with an O(n^2) queue.

[knowtheory]

Yes there are many web developer who rely on rubygems, but it was written and continues to be maintained today by people who are (not perfect) but good developers who like Aaron, find shit like this and fix it.

If you actually cared, you'd be out there using your vaunted skills to improve the software other people use, instead of slagging off other developers on Hacker News.