The architecture refactor of 2025

[vhyrro]

Discussed in #999

Check that discussion out for all the info!

[Groctel]

Damn, I feel betrayed that this is not #999 anymore :(

[vhyrro]

Now it's just a measly 1006 😭

[purepani]

proposal to rename this to 2026 since realistically this won't happen until then

[benlubas]

My money is on 2027

[Groctel]

Hey, I had completely forgotten about this. You shouldn't be betting on it coming, as I'm no longer using Neorg and have moved on to other projects, sorry.

When I wrote this issue I was struggling with burnout and depression (fun times!) and I had some moments when I tried to push myself to be better by writing good software. When I wrote this I had a lot of momentum and many thousands of lines written, but the brain is an asshole and it went back to life support mode. Turns out the real solution was therapy after all.

IIRC I had a brief exchange with Vhyrro about abandoning another big change and picking up months later, so this wasn't a one-time thing. For that, I would like to sincerely apologise. I hope my interventions here didn't make this software worse. If they did, let's discuss and find a way to make it better... in small steps :-)

If I came brand new to the project today, I wouldn't have proposed this, btw. Turns out that two years of software engineering job gives you a much more mature perspective than five years of college. Still, if you want to discuss what I had in mind to pick it up yourselves, we can talk here or schedule a call. Note that I left Discord some time ago, so that's not an option, as it isn't discussing this there either.

I hope you understand my point of view and forgive my actions (or lack thereof). In any case, thank you for your hospitality. You've been an excellent community and I hope to see you flourish and succeed many times in the years to come. ❤

[purepani]

Oh I wasn't trying to say anything bad.
I just thought it was funny that the name was being changed every year haha.

[purepani]

Just out of curiosity, how would you modify your proposal with your newfound experience :)

[Groctel]

I wasn't implying that you were berating me or something, don't worry ;-D This issue stings especially because it reminds me of a very difficult time in my life. Writing that wasn't easy, but also I need to leave this behind to move on, so your notifications were the perfect moment to start doing that.

Tbh, it's pretty funny and kind of wholesome that you guys have been moving this up a year every twelve months. Never change. ❤❤❤❤

About your question, you don't propose big refactors from the get go but actively contribute to the project by extending it and THEN slowly refactoring some things. At that moment my mind was on a "I need to do grandiose things" moment thanks to the burnout, but changing working software is a very slow process that requires intimate knowledge of the system. At my last workplace we followed this method and were very happy with it: https://max.engineer/long-term-refactors. Note that the refactors are extremely self-contained tasks that can be done in parallel to developing. Refactoring the architecture is actually an euphemism for a rewrite, which is a very just-out-of-college thing to do ;-P

[purepani]

Definitely agree that changes should be incremental as much as possible :D

I definitely didn't think my attempt at being funny would be a potential push for someone to move on mentally for something, so that's a (good) surprise! Hope you'll end up a lot better.

[benlubas]

I'll chime in to add I was under the impression that @vhyrro was gonna carry this across the finish line, hence the 2027 wager. I hate the way the module system is currently setup, so I would like to see the changes you proposed implemented.

I'm glad that you're feeling better! Never feel pressure to contribute to open source stuff, don't worry. We all do this for basically free, and I've left my fair share of issues and PRs abandoned (some very regrettably, but I was just so burnt out)