📝§ Extensible system

Extensibility is about cost of adding new extensions
Issues with non-extensible systems
- Local-First Software
Every extensible system feels messy and spaghetti-like
Opportunities of extensible systems
- Seamless UI
- Access to data
What makes system extensible?
- Open source makes systems more extensible
  - Are there closed-source extensible systems?
    - Sublime text?
    - Roam?
- Extensibility requires introspection
  - Reify data model
Principles of extensible systems
- Composability
- Replaceability
- Explicit data (?)
- Ideal extensible system requires adding new code only
  - Open-Closed Principle
- Extensible system makes it easy to apply the changes
Examples of extensible systems
- Vim / Emacs
  - What makes Emacs extensible?
  - What makes Vim extensible?
- Smalltalk
  - What makes Smalltalk extensible?
- TeX
  - What makes TeX extensible?
- What are extensible systems that do not require computers?
- What are examples of extensible systems in real life?
How to make vendors create extensible systems?
- How to turn vendors into allies?
  - Open source business models
- Extensible systems threaten ads
Safety in extensible system
- Extensibility negatively affects software security
2/COSS process might be good for extensible systems
Why extensible systems are not popular right now?
Extensible user interface
- Extensible interfaces might hinder UX
- CLIs are more composable than GUI applications
  - CLIs expose interaction as first-class citizen
  - CLIs are usually much smaller and do a single thing
  - Only non-interactive CLIs are composable
How does idea align with other trends in Software Development?
- more software moving to web
Languages
- Smalltalk
- Guile is a language designed for extensible systems

Backlinks

📝 § Personal computing
📝 Enums are not extensible
📝 Glamorous toolkit
📝 § Programmable syntax
📝 Authentication and identity management should be part of the platform
📝 Extensible interfaces might hinder UX
📝 § Index
📝 What makes Smalltalk extensible?
📝 Guile is a language designed for extensible systems
📝 CLIs expose interaction as first-class citizen
📝 Issues with non-extensible systems