Top all-time · #5310
James Garbutt
Personal blog · 43081j.comprogrammingweb
James Garbutt's personal blog at 43081j.com covers programming and web. Since 2014, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “The bloat of edge-case first libraries”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-17, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link James Garbutt's posts on JavaScript and web component libraries, including the future of Polymer and lit-element and a piece on bloat in edge-case libraries.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Software engineer focusing on open source and ecosystem performance.
Most-linked posts?
- The bloat of edge-case first libraries5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2025-09-09
- First Thoughts on Deno, the JavaScript/TypeScript Runtime4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-01-28
- Humanity in Open Source2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-08-17
What Hacker News says?
There was a nice article [0] about bloated edge cases libraries (discussion [1]). Sometimes, it's just not the responsibility of the library. Trying to handle every possible errors is a quick way to complexity. [0]: https://43081j.com/2025/09/bloat-of-edge-case-libraries [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45319399
Comment linking /2025/09/bloat-of-edge-case-libraries
on “Sj.h: A tiny little JSON parsing library in ~150 lines of C99”Submitted The bloat of edge-case first libraries as a story · 134 points
HN discussionDunno if you've looked recently but how do you feel about Polymer 3, which has essentially become lit-element (which is powered by lit-html)? Just in case you haven't been watching the space at all: - https://43081j.com/2018/08/future-of-polymer - https://www.polymer-project.org/blog/2020-09-22-lit-element-... - https://lit-element.polymer-project.org
Comment linking /2018/08/future-of-polymer
on “Using const/let instead of var can make JavaScript code run 10× slower in Webkit”Submitted The Three Pillars of JavaScript Bloat as a story · 28 points
HN discussionSubmitted The bloat of edge-case first libraries as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted First Thoughts on Deno, the JavaScript/TypeScript Runtime as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted First look at Deno, the JavaScript/TypeScript run-time based on top of V8 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Declarative Routing in Polymer JS as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Xkcd: NPM Edition as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The bloat of edge-case first libraries as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted First Thoughts on Deno, the JavaScript/TypeScript Run-Time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted First Thoughts on Deno, the JavaScript/TypeScript Run-Time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Humanity in Open Source as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Humanity in Open Source as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The bloat of edge-case first libraries as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Polymer – A few problems and their solutions as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The New Dialog Element as a story · 1 points
HN discussion