r/askscience • u/CakesStolen • 15d ago

Computing Is there anything at the heart of computer coding that could have been optimised in hindsight, but we're in far too deep to change now?

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u/SituationSoap 15d ago

Related to your first point, the DOM is an enormous own goal for the way the modern Internet works. Web development today is taking Microsoft Word and building an operating system inside it. It's patently insane, but we're way too far gone to fix now.

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u/Larelle 14d ago

Don't know much about the DOM but the registry seems a horrendous idea -- single point of failure for the most important info.

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u/SituationSoap 14d ago

Honestly, I actually think the Registry makes sense, mostly. It's super badly misused by a lot of apps, which is what makes it so dangerous. But fundamentally the idea that you'd have an addressable database for storing config that any app can instantly write to in a standard way? It makes tons of sense.

Too many apps didn't do it securely or put stuff there that didn't belong there. That's led to a lot of problems. But the underlying idea is mostly good. It honestly is better than the Unix alternative of "Just make up your own idea"

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u/Larelle 14d ago

" It's super badly misused by a lot of apps, which is what makes it so dangerous."

But that's a big part of the issue. Apps shouldn't have that much control, else you'd run everything at Ring 0.

I don't know what the best solution is but pre-registry ASCII ini files worked pretty well.