0007. Simple and fast

• Status: accepted
• Date: 2026-10-02

Context

A live rig cannot drop a buffer, and it runs on laptops, tablets and phones. Frameworks tend to grow layers of indirection that cost time on every call and make the code hard to verify. Over-engineering is a performance problem as much as a readability one.

Decision

Code is optimised by being simple: plain data, free functions, contiguous storage, no abstraction without a second real use, no per-sample indirection. Ports are the only planned abstraction, and they are crossed per block or per message, never per sample. Optimisations that cost readability are justified by a kept benchmark ([bench] tests). The rules are in CLAUDE.md (“Simple and fast”).

Consequences

• The same code is fast on every platform without platform-specific tuning.
• Some duplication is accepted until a second use proves the abstraction.
• Reviews reject managers, factories and speculative options.