refactor/
We remove code until the tests still pass, then remove a little more and see who calls. Billed by the line, downward.
Byte−Minus
7-bit systems · since 2019 · still up
rot 000°
byte.obj — 8 declared · 7 rasterised
byteminus:~$ cat manifesto.txt
Byte Minus is a small software company that writes less code than it is asked to and deletes considerably more than it writes. The eighth bit was reviewed, discussed at length across two quarters, and cut. Nobody has asked about it since.
byteminus:~$ whoami
We are four people and a build server. Clients bring us a repository they are afraid of, and we return a smaller one they are less afraid of. The work is unglamorous: reading, deleting, and writing down what the deleted parts used to do.
We are not a startup. We do not have a mission statement, a growth curve, or a stance on the future of work. We have a test suite that passes most mornings, and a policy of telling you when it doesn't.
byteminus:~$ df -h /world/trash-code
Lines of trash code removed from the world database
| Filesystem | Size | Used | Avail | Use% | Mounted on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /dev/legacy | 8.0P | 7.9P | 118T | 99% | /world/trash-code |
| /dev/ours | 140G | 31G | 109G | 22% | /world/ours |
Counted net of what we add back. The figure updates live and is accurate to roughly the nearest thousand, which is the same accuracy every other dashboard has, stated honestly.
byteminus:~$ ls -l services/
We remove code until the tests still pass, then remove a little more and see who calls. Billed by the line, downward.
We read the repository and write down which parts your team is afraid of. You already know which parts. The value is in having it in writing.
We move you off the thing you regret and onto a thing you will regret later, at a pace that lets you cancel.
Dead flags, orphaned services, the cron job nobody owns. We find who depends on it first. That part takes the longest and is the part you are paying for.
byteminus:~$ ls ~/projects/
Small tools, each one made to stop doing something by hand. All four are AI-powered, which is a sentence we are happier printing on the projects than on the company. None of them carry ads.
“Mess accounts, minus the arguing.”
Shared-mess accounting for hostels and flats. Daily meals down to the half meal and the guest plate, bazar runs, rent, bills and deposits, with the meal rate worked out at month end and a change log recording who edited what. The arguing was the part we removed.
messledger.com · CSV export at settlement
“Offline budget tracker. Accounts, bills and spending stay on your phone.”
An AI budget tracker that works offline. It sorts what you spent into accounts and bills and shows you the month. No ads, no tracking, nothing sold on to anyone — three more things removed. No streaks or confetti either.
Google Play · free, ad-free
Finds the tests that were never testing.
Reads a suite and reports which tests would still pass if the code beneath them were deleted. Most suites have more of these than the team expects. Removing them is optional. Knowing about them is not.
Used on every audit · not public
The cold email, aimed properly.
Matches a grad-school applicant’s research interests against professors currently publishing in that area, so the cold email reaches someone whose work you have actually read. Built because doing this by hand costs a weekend per school.
For MS and PhD applicants
byteminus:~$ ./excuse --random
Every shop keeps a list. Ours is public, because pretending otherwise has never once shortened a standup.
byteminus:~$ cat FAQ.txt