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Am I the only person for whom this looks like horrible, over-complex, write-only spaghetti code?

Probably not, but I personally disagree. It's a fully featured application in ~500 lines, with a proper database, web server, and simple yet extensible backend and frontend. Imagine how many more dependencies and complexity you would have to introduce to implement something like this in the traditional way.

Sure, you likely wouldn't want to maintain a more complex project with this stack, but IMO it's perfectly suited for an RSS reader. To me this is a prime example of solid full-stack web development, and I applaud the effort. Kudos to the author for choosing the right technologies to balance the features/simplicity, and integrating them so well.

The jury is out. Fwiw I found it surprisingly easy to add new features. My intuition is that there's a complexity asymptote that the code naturally reaches over time, and it won't get any worse.

What do you think about: https://htmx.org/essays/locality-of-behaviour/

Locality of behaviour is, on the whole, a good thing.

I say "on the whole" because there are always counterexamples to any maxim. The article realises this and mentions 2: DRY and SoC.

Writing good software is often a matter of taste.

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