An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

Not sure we need another term for this, as "utilities" has been the accepted term for various one-off programs that do miscellaneous things, and of which power-users will tend to have a rather large collection of.

However, the term reminded me of a memorable interaction I had many decades ago with an old woman who wanted to write a program in x86 Asm to manage various aspects of the plants in her garden. (She did succeed at doing so.)

This is such a lovely article. It’s one of the few things posted to HN these days that actually feels human.

> A happy home: I love having both plants and homemade projects in my living space.

This reminds me of various programs I've made to improve the quality of my digital life. Humble little things that I didn't want to build, addressing minor problems that could be mostly solved by other means, but nevertheless appeared on my mental wish list often enough that I eventually dedicated some time to creating them.

These tools do exactly what I need, all day, every day, quietly making things more pleasant than they would be otherwise. With them, I feel at home.

I love it. I do plant tissue culture as hobby and really see plants as the living systems that they are.

The article has a bonus cat video so I highly recommend it. I like the houseplant metaphor, but I don't see how the author is tending to the programs like the plants. The plants are getting regular care, do the one of programs?

I love this, although I tend to use the “Home-cooked meal” analogy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38877423

I prefer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening