10 Oct
2011
10 Oct
'11
12:49 p.m.
On 10/10/2011 03:35 PM, Ray Arachelian wrote:
I haven't been in that situation, but knowing a bit about the
history, I sincerely doubt that.
People used
to give Richard Stallman static for directly using emacs
as his shell as specified in /etc/passwd. Shit, now people want to do
it with a web browser, and nobody seems to get why this is a patently
stupid idea on about a dozen different levels. WTF?
Again with the "twilight zone"
theme. These interfaces are on the
rise, in a roaring way, to a tremendous degree. Google Apps and their
ilk, GWT-based apps, AJAX, "Web 2.0" etc etc etc all fall under this
category. Everything is going that way. It is a huge, bloated,
bandwidth-wasting, cycle-wasting mess.
I imagine that's what they guys that programmed using jumpers said about
Von Neumann architecture. I imagine that's what the switch flippers said
about installing a
monitor ROM or a boot loader.
Definitely not; I've been in that situation myself.
I imagine that's what the monitor users said about
an operating system.
Ditto.
I imagine that's what the operating system users
said about using a
compiler instead of coding in assembler.
Yes, sometimes, but not usually. (been there too)
I imagine that's what the static language guys
said about the dynamic
languages.
I'd agree with that.
etc...
It's all meta, meta, meta. How close you and I are to the silicon isn't
the same as how close Joe User wants to be.
I don't think I've ever known of anyone who WANTS everything to be in
a web browser. At least, not people who actually know what a web
browser is or when they are or aren't running one. Further, we weren't
actually talking about "Joe User".
I simply cannot fathom the notion that supposedly technically adept
and experienced people advocate the use of a web browser as the end-all,
be-all user interface.
Further, the notion that it is somehow an anti-vendor-lock-in device
is nothing short of laughable, when hordes of people are being paid to
develop websites which are only compatible with ONE proprietary web
browser from ONE out-in-left-field company that only runs on ONE
platform and is largely incompatible with the dozen or so other web
browsers out there, not to mention the friggin' STANDARDS themselves.
Fortunately that's on the wane, but it was VERY big for a long time, and
still persists in some backwaters.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA