Mercurial Hosting > reactionary

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/src/about.html.luan	Fri Apr 15 01:37:19 2022 -0600
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+local Luan = require "luan:Luan.luan"
+local error = Luan.error
+local Io = require "luan:Io.luan"
+local Http = require "luan:http/Http.luan"
+local Shared = require "site:/lib/Shared.luan"
+local head = Shared.head or error()
+local header = Shared.header or error()
+
+
+return function()
+	Io.stdout = Http.response.text_writer()
+%>
+<!doctype html>
+<html>
+	<head>
+<%		head() %>
+		<title>About Reactionary Software</title>
+	<head>
+	<body>
+<%		header() %>
+		<div content>
+			<h1>About Reactionary Software</h1>
+
+			<p>Google "html swipe" and see all kinds of horrors.  I needed to implement this for phone users of my commercial website, and seeing the horrible solutions (all of which use Javascript) that are used depressed me.  But I found <a href="http://fschmidt.luan.software/swipe.html">a simple solution</a>.  Try it on a phone.  Smooth swipe.  No Javascript, no complicated crap.  View the source.  It's simple.</p>
+
+			<p>I have this kind of experience all the time.  I need something.  I look online.  Everything I find is horribly over-complicated.  And so I just write it myself.  Don't reinvent the wheel you say?  When every wheel I can find is some complicated shape and not a simple circle, then I do reinvent the wheel.</p>
+
+			<p>This <a href="https://youtu.be/PCRx78Zhj7s">funny video</a> exemplifies modern design.  Over-engineered, over-complicated, inflexible, and cumbersome.  All modern software is like this.  Of course it wasn't always like this.  Most programming in the last century was good.  Serious deterioration started around 2000 and by 2010 all software developed by modern culture was horrible.  This reflects the general decline of modern culture.</p>
+
+			<p>I have written numerous posts over the years complaining about modern software.  Here is <a href="http://www.mikraite.org/Modern-Software-Layers-of-Junk-tp747.html">one</a> from 2016 complaining about DNS caching.  It goes into detail about the particular issue I was dealing with at the time, but I am only posting a link because the details aren't important.  The important point is that all modern software written by modern programmers is like this, all horrible unusable crap.  And this is why reasonable people need reactionary software.</p>
+
+			<p>This website is about software, but the principle applies to everything.  Here is <a href="https://youtu.be/p5qVxAoKwbE">a video about brick walls</a>.  Same basic story.  So where will this decay of software and everything else lead?</p>
+
+			<h2>The Historical Example of Cosmology</h2>
+
+			<p>In the 200s BC <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos">Aristarchus of Samos</a> invented <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism">heliocentric cosmology</a> which was simple and accurate.  But this was rejected by the people of his time.  Why?</p>
+
+			<p>The story of Greek science begins with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras">Pythagoras</a> who lived in the 500s BC.  He was the first person to recognize the power of math to describe the world and he applied math to many things.  This inspired Greek astronomers to try to describe cosmology in simple mathematical terms.  This was during the time that Greeks were a rising culture.  They were highly intelligent people who respected reality.</p>
+
+			<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato">Plato</a> lived in the 300s BC by which time Greece was in decline.  This decline was very well described in the comedies of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristophanes">Aristophanes</a>.  The decline sounds much like all declining cultures in history including our own, and is presumably the result of decaying culture and decaying genetics.  In other words, the Greeks were becoming moronic scum, just as members of modern western culture are today.  Plato was an ideologue who was in love with his own ideas and had no interest in reality.  Plato insisted on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model">geocentric model</a> of cosmology based purely on circles.  Why?  Just because this was the idea that appealed to him.  Reality was irrelevant.  Aristotle backed him up, and so this became orthodoxy.  By the time Aristarchus came along with his heliocentric cosmology, he was violating orthodox ideas so the moronic scum of his time just ignored him.  Then in the 100s BC Ptolemy created <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model#Ptolemaic_system">a horrible overcomplicated geocentric model</a> based on the circles that Plato required.  This became the standard for the next 1700 years.</p>
+
+			<p>Cosmology only changed again when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus">Copernicus</a> revived the ideas of Aristarchus.  Why did it take to long?  Because humanity had become just too stupid to appreciate good ideas.  They weren't completely retarded.  Ptolemy's horrible system did require some intelligence to create.  And the Romans managed to do engineering and build an empire while completely failing to contribute anything to science or math or have any fundamental insights into the world.  There are levels of intelligence, and Ancient Greeks and recent Europeans were at the top level.  The Romans were at the next level.  And most of history was composed of people too stupid to do engineering or much of anything.</p>
+
+			<p>Today's West is currently at the level of the decaying Greeks, heading toward complete idiocracy.  The programmers in Silicon Valley are like Ptolemy, able to construct and maintain horrible overcomplicated monstrosities, but totally unable to innovate at a fundamental level.  All good programming ideas are rejected because they don't fit into current programming ideologies.  Any programmer like Aristarchus who comes up with a good programming idea will be rejected and ridiculed for violating orthodoxy.  Modern programmers are in love with their own ideas and love complexity.  They hate simplicity and anything that violates their ideologies.</p>
+
+			<p>For a concrete example, consider <a href="http://www.luan.software/goodjava.html#parser">my parser</a>.  It is a basic innovation that massively simplifies parsing.  So what reception did it get?  Of course <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Compilers/comments/cv78b3/parsing_for_programmers_who_hate_modern_software/">it was ridiculed</a> by modern programmers.  This is the same story as Aristarchus.  Modern programmers naturally hate everything that is good and only love what is horrible.</p>
+
+			<p>Given this situation, what should a good reactionary programmer do?  In Matthew 7:6, Jesus said "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."  Good software is pearls and modern programmers are swine.  So do not repeat my mistake of showing good software to modern programmers.</p>
+
+			<h2>What is good?</h2>
+
+			<p>The short answer is that everything that modern culture hates is good, and everything that modern culture loves is bad.  But we need more details than that.  You can find good values in scripture or in good traditional culture.  These values should be applied to programming and to everything else in life.  I wrote <a href="http://www.mikraite.org/The-Old-Testament-on-Programming-tp1923.html">an Old Testament guide to programming</a>.  I also discussed <a href="http://www.mikraite.org/Core-Programming-Principles-tp1237.html">applying traditional Japanese culture to programming</a>.  These are just two examples.  Any other scripture like the Quran or any traditional culture should work fine to give you good values, in contrast to the horrible values of modern culture, and these good values can guide you to writing good reactionary software.</p>
+
+			<h2>What about alt-tech?</h2>
+
+		</div>
+	</body>
+</html>
+<%
+end
--- a/src/index.html.luan	Thu Apr 14 14:50:48 2022 -0600
+++ b/src/index.html.luan	Fri Apr 15 01:37:19 2022 -0600
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 			<h3>Make software great again!</h3>
 			<p>For programmers who hate modern software.  Modern software is overcomplicated, bloated, unreliable, incomprehensible, pointlessly ideological, and mostly unusable.  We like the values of older software: simplicity, reliability, and usability.</p>
 			<ul links>
+				<li><a href="/about.html">About Reactionary Software</a></li>
 				<li><a href="/existing.html">Existing Reactionary Software</a></li>
 				<li><a href="/needed.html">Needed Reactionary Software</a></li>
 				<li><a href="/books.html">Reactionary Programming Books</a></li>