I discovered #4 through him and I agree both with his summary and the paper itself --- canonical Huffman is astoundingly simple if you look at it in the right way, yet almost everyone doesn't. ryg is also a member of the Farbrausch demogroup, which has released some amazing demos. This one is probably the most memorable: [this video]
One only has to look at the demoscene to realise that limitations inspire creativity and efficiency. It's just a form of art, but gives a glimpse at what computers are capable of, if only we would try to use them more efficiently. I think award-winning 4k or 64k demos should be required watching for every software developer. Here are some personal favourites which have also appeared on HN: [link] [link] [this video]
Among personal favourite demos showing what computers can do efficiently.
When I'm thinking about bloated web frameworks and inefficient libraries, I often come back to memories of 64k demos released by groups such as Farbrausch. Here's what they've pulled off in 2000: [this video] - as somewhat of a "contrast", jQuery alone (3.0.0-alpha1, minified) weighs 84522 bytes. Use (what you deem as) the right tool for the job. As to how we've got to where we are today, there are lots of reasons - but personally, I feel it's pointless to constantly talk about it. Whether things are more complex than they used to be is up for debate, it's entirely subjective. It's natural for things to evolve given the rising popularity and increased demands - but they evolve organically. People flock to frameworks because there's abstraction, and the "dirty work" has been offloaded to a third-party. This saves people time and effort. It's a bet - frameworks come and go, maintainers disappear; that's just the nature of it.
Example of what 64k can achieve, contrasted with bloated web frameworks.
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