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@nolan@toot.cafe

2026-02-08 05:04 UTC

@varx@infosec.exchange The Web Platform Tests are a pretty high bar of quality. If you read through them, most of them are about bizarre edge cases that, yes, include security, e.g. https://github.com/w3c/IndexedDB/issues/476 The code is probably awful when it comes to maintenance, reusability, etc., but I'm starting to wonder if any of those values matter anymore. There are of course exceptions, e.g. a common joke in W3C circles is about the "hit testing spec" that doesn't exist, but WPTs are otherwise pretty exhaustive.

Replies (2)

  • @janpet@ruby.social 2026-02-08 09:50

    @nolan@toot.cafe @varx@infosec.exchange How could maintainability not matter? On any long term project that does evolve, ease of change is IMO one of the most important factors. That ease depends on code quality/complexity. Unless genAI improves faster then complexity of the code infinitely, you hit the wall as some moment, having a terrible code no-one is willing to touch. I cannot imagine how this can stop being important thing.

    Open ##2408310

  • @varx@infosec.exchange 2026-02-08 13:41

    @nolan@toot.cafe I can see companies successfully discarding reusability (as repugnant as that would be), but maintainability isn't something you can escape. That's my bet. Security also isn't something you can test your way out of. Tests show that the software *does* a thing, rather than that it *doesn't* do a thing. There are such things as security tests but they're usually written with specific implementations in mind, preventing certain kinds of easy mistakes from creeping into the codebase unnoticed. You can't take a set of security tests for one implementation and trust that they'll do anything for another one. (Many are also regression tests for a specific impl, written in retrospect...)

    Open ##2408312