Re: Emacs discussed on US NPR

[Emanuel Berg]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> You might be interested in this comment (the only
> one so far, it seems), from a veteran Electrical
> Engineer in Santa Clara, CA:
>
>     ... At the age of eighteen, my fingers learned
>     to build emacs keyboard macros and I think I can
>     use them in my sleep. I still use GNUemacs (and
>     Aquamacs) every day.

Again this emphasis on keyboard macros I never
understood it and never did it - but so many people
often bring it up first thing! I always thought of it
as poor man's programming, and I still do, but perhaps
I'm wrong again as so many people likes and uses it
so much.

> Since, aside from venues such as the present one,
> I eschew use of all media tar babies such as the
> FacebookianInstaTwitterverse, you'd think I'd
> cocooned myself far from the "app" madding crowd.

It is really depressing but it is better not to use
and not to think of it. "Don't hate the software,
become the software." Or, write new interfaces to get
just what you like, the way you like it.

I recently mentioned my w3m hacks. But there are many
big projects like that as well. I recently discovered
the Debian package mps-youtube (with /usr/bin/mpsyt)
which allows you to access the whole YT media archive
from the shell, and with super-speed and power to
extract just what you look for. Wonderful!

>     Sometimes I wish that all software types would
>     just Stop Doing Stuff.
>
> Alas, one person's shiny new "modernization" is
> another person's annoying
> Clippy-the-not-so-helpful-helper.

Oh, no! Not this again!

Yes, it is "true" in a literal sense but the beneath
attitude is destructive and even incorrect!

The constructive approach which doesn't suffer from
the problem is: add as much useful stuff as possible,
but don't put it where anyone sees it and don't have
it interfere with anything else, and when the time
comes and when it is needed it is right there!

In a bicycle repair shop there are a lot of tools as
it should. So a good idea is to hang them on the walls
so you can still have the bikes and move around on the
floor. The most used tools are the closest to you, and
the least often ones hang just below the ceiling.

Because you *want* a lot of tools, in the repair shop
and even more so in the software world because here
they won't even fill the room you are in and you don't
have to bother organizing everything and do the old
care of kit (which I enjoy, but that's beside the
point).

This minimalist hysteria is a misconception. We *do*
want tools and power - the more the better - just not
in our faces until the moment they are used.
People think of features as pop-ups and buttons and
irritating blink-blink - there is in fact no such
implication, and if it is, don't blame the features!

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573