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It makes it seem like RPM is an incredibly difficult packaging system, when in reality the author has deliberately chosen an obscure and unusual way of working with it.

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ASN.1 and XML are easy to work with using the right existing tools, but that doesn't mean someone can't post their thoughts about them being frustrating formats.

OP made it clear what they were focusing on. If a passerby mistakes it for a complaint about using RPM as a sysadmin, it's their own problem.

OP said they were trying to make a tool to automatically generate RPM packages. They didn't do this efficiently or reasonably at all.

This is nothing to do with the packaging system or the ecosystem, the author decided to dive into the file format specifically. They even posted comments from the rpm source that echo the confusion and disbelief reflected in the article. Is the tone the author took the problem you have with it? Otherwise I don’t get why you are so against someone trying to learn how a file format works and documenting the experience.

I've built tools that automatically create RPM files in less time than the author tool to write this article. I take umbrage in the bizarre implication that building a tool to make RPMs needs you to dive into the format with a hex editor, when it does not.

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