29 Oct
2011
29 Oct
'11
9:30 p.m.
[I]t's not because it's "stupid"
(which it isn't), it's because
developers don't WANT to work on slow machines.
I sure don't. Do you?
Other things being equal, I don't.
Other things are never equal. There are four reasons that come to
mind immediately why I'd rather work on my (comparatively) slow SS20
rather than some ridiculously overmuscled "modern" machine.
Specifically, (1) so I can use a good keyboard (I've managed to hack a
peecee X server to take a Sun keyboard on a serial port; it mostly
works but has some annoying issues); (2) I have an aesthetic dislike
for the x86 architecture, and in particular really do not appreciate
wasing a substantial fraction of the silicon (and power) on an
emulation layer that just keeps me away from the full power of the
hardware; (3) working on slow machines keeps me honest, preventing me
from sweeping my coding sins under the rug with
hardware oomph; (4) the
SS20 is substantially more reliable hardware.
Obviously, these won't all apply to everyone. Some people, _none_ of
them will apply to. But those are (some of) my reasons.
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