SVGs, OpenCLI, finished software, and reframing technical debt

20 Oct 2025

SVG tutorial

Vector graphics are cool! I do a lot of work using LaTeX/TikZ for vector graphics but in the web and for a more modern experience, SVG exists. This tutorial is a really friendly intro with lots of clickable examples and good explanations of high-level elements.

Link: https://www.joshwcomeau.com/svg/friendly-introduction-to-svg

OpenCLI

Following in the footsteps of the popular OpenAPI, this effort to provide a standard for interfacing with CLI applications is interesting. It’s still very much in an “alpha” stage of development but the idea is appealing. As somebody who spends a lot of time working with CLI tools, it’s easy to imagine the utility of having standard interfaces for making things like automation easier.

Link: https://opencli.org/

Software can be finished

I have been party to many discussions (especially with management and external stakeholders) about how software is never really “finished” and as an owner of said software one must consider ongoing maintenance. Often that maintenance is just dependency updates, but regularly having eyes on deployed code keeps it from stagnating. This article is not directly arguing with this, but points out that some software can be finished and we should sometimes strive for that. I understood this as a “limit” (in the sense of calculus). We may never reach finished software but we can and maybe should try to approach it.

Link: https://rosswintle.uk/2025/10/software-can-be-finished

Can we frame technical debt positively?

I really loved this short article, which frames technical debt as a knowledge gain. Basically, you either learn something or a new technology is released and in both cases your existing code could now be improved. In these cases, the “technical debt” is actually just a gain in knowledge, and a failure it do the improvement work is now an opportunity cost.

Link: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/knowledge-creates-technical-debt