Re: Emacs discussed on US NPR

[Rainer M Krug]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> 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!

Dam it - I had to try mps-youtube, and now I lost nearly an hour to
browsing youtube because of you - youtube was never that much fun!

Thanks,

Rainer
>
>>     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!

-- 
Rainer M. Krug
email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de
PGP: 0x0F52F982

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