tools

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This was my fault. Gemini 3.7 Flash produces SVG that works in all three browsers. My vibe-coded tool for rendering those SVGs in a document was stripping some attributes. I've fixed that bug now and https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer.html#u... shows the pelicans as they should have been rendered across all three browsers. (Here's the fix: https://github.com/simonw/tools/commit/78fca0e647a9e20eff169... )

I'm planning an article at the moment in defense of lines of code. Saying "lines of code are a bad measurement" is too easy! It's about time someone presented an opposing argument. In my specific case, lines of code for my published open source projects is a metric that I trust, because I have high standards for those. I have plenty of other projects where I'll accept poor quality, unreviewed code (almost all of https://github.com/simonw/tools for example), but Datasette, sqlite-utils and LLM are not that. Of course, that's only useful for me personally and for people who trust me to stick to my own self-declared high standards!

> Can, but do people do that? Yes, of course they are. Not the people who are vibe-puking feed-content to try and make a quick buck; The people that are hustler first, craftsperson second. But there are plenty examples of it being done better if you start following projects. A simple example: https://github.com/simonw/tools/commits/main/ Its worth remembering that the word we use for what we do is _development_, and the vast majority of software running right now is undergoing continual development. I swear, there must be whole generation of coddled-coders out there who have never had to work on a legacy codebase, and these chuckleheads must be the source of most anti-clanker sentiment. In 2013 I started working for couchsurfing, a company that was trying to go from a volunteer-coded and operated web app to a "proper" startup with an