Standing Initiatives

A proposed certification scheme verifying that every line of a codebase was manually typed by a human being. Compliance is attested annually, by hand, on paper, in triplicate.

Note: Heritage level was contested at the 2024 general meeting on the grounds that even the Society uses Git. The motion to strike it was defeated when the minutes of the previous three meetings could not be located, which was felt to prove the level's authenticity.

Software should be local, seasonal, and compiled in small batches.

Members of the movement pledge to:

• Use locally sourced dependencies, ideally from within the building
• Avoid mass-produced abstractions
• Compile only when necessary, and always with feeling
• Maintain a personal relationship with every pointer
• Prefer code with a clear provenance and a short supply chain

The movement's quarterly journal, Terroir, reviews codebases by region. The Q2 issue rated a Bavarian inventory system "oaky, with notes of Delphi."

Every year, thousands of production systems lose their last maintainer to retirement, resignation, or a sudden interest in beekeeping. Through this program, visitors may symbolically adopt an abandoned application.

Adopters receive a photograph of their system's login screen and, twice a year, a status letter. The status is always "operational, but nobody knows why."

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