extra code that the nginx maintainers must now continue to support, test, etc on an ongoing basis
No. This MR does nothing more than adding a single additional HTML head entry to each of the error page arrays. If it works now, it will continue to work. No functional Nginx code was changed, no continuous tests needed.
To me, this change goes against the Unix philosophy of simplicity, modularity, and the idea that programs should do one thing well.
It does not. Neither should anyone care too much. Unix philosophy is a set of guiding principles, not strict rules. Many of them do not have very clear definitions and are not always easily applicable in every software or today’s environment in general.
Nginx should not contain logic that is not expressly related to serving or proxying web requests. The content it serves is up to the end user.
The MR does not go against either of these points. It very explicitly changes only the default error pages, which, unless replaced by custom pages, are obviously not up to the end user and already part of Nginx, including the logic to display relevant error codes. These points make no sense at all.
If we accept this change, should they also provide localized versions of all the error pages, too?
They could if they wanted to. As long as the performance impact is negligible, I won’t complain. But I don’t really see a reason to do so. I also don’t think that this is equally comparable. Most people who know how to setup a web server speak English, which is basically a requirement for any advanced computer knowledge. And HTTP status codes are more universal than the messages anyway, so missing localisation is generally not much of a problem. Suddenly getting blinded by an almost purely white fullscreen page however very much is a problem, or at the very least an annoyance, for quite a lot of people.
I’m happy if their responsibility ends at just serving the content I provide.
Neither would these changes affect your ability to do that nor is this just about you. Maybe you have set up your own error page, possibly even with a dark background, but many maintainers of Nginx servers didn’t. I also don’t expect everyone to do that, which makes a universal upstream change the easiest and most efficient option, so people like me don’t have to endure the pain of getting blinded by yet another error page. And I mean this literally. Photophobia makes sudden bright light genuinely painful for the eyes.
No. This MR does nothing more than adding a single additional HTML head entry to each of the error page arrays. If it works now, it will continue to work. No functional Nginx code was changed, no continuous tests needed.
It does not. Neither should anyone care too much. Unix philosophy is a set of guiding principles, not strict rules. Many of them do not have very clear definitions and are not always easily applicable in every software or today’s environment in general.
The MR does not go against either of these points. It very explicitly changes only the default error pages, which, unless replaced by custom pages, are obviously not up to the end user and already part of Nginx, including the logic to display relevant error codes. These points make no sense at all.
They could if they wanted to. As long as the performance impact is negligible, I won’t complain. But I don’t really see a reason to do so. I also don’t think that this is equally comparable. Most people who know how to setup a web server speak English, which is basically a requirement for any advanced computer knowledge. And HTTP status codes are more universal than the messages anyway, so missing localisation is generally not much of a problem. Suddenly getting blinded by an almost purely white fullscreen page however very much is a problem, or at the very least an annoyance, for quite a lot of people.
Neither would these changes affect your ability to do that nor is this just about you. Maybe you have set up your own error page, possibly even with a dark background, but many maintainers of Nginx servers didn’t. I also don’t expect everyone to do that, which makes a universal upstream change the easiest and most efficient option, so people like me don’t have to endure the pain of getting blinded by yet another error page. And I mean this literally. Photophobia makes sudden bright light genuinely painful for the eyes.