Friday 12 August 2016
Why I don’t Use GNOME but Everyone Else Should
Why I don’t Use GNOME but Everyone Else Should
Bradley M. Kuhn
Friday 12 August 2016
The Masochistic Programmer
Adversity overcome = experience & community bonds.
Historically, programmers believed the challenge of even using software was significant.
●Everyone wants:
●an invitation to the secret club.
●to show they’ve overcome adversity & succeeded.
Real Programmers don’t comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
— Tom Van Vleck on 1982-10-20.
In My Day…
Write What You Know
●Early software authors wrote software for people like themselves.
●Other scientists used the first computers.
●It’s, in fact, why we call them “computers”.
User Culture
●This sign was on the wall in the processing department (main computer users on site) at my first job in 1991.
In Service of Users?
●The advent of the “user”:
●What, like a drug user (abuser)?
●Or a someone who manipulates you into action you didn’t want to do?
Real Programmers don’t write application programs, they program right down on the bare metal. Application programming is for [derogatory expletive] who can’t do system programming.
— Tom Van Vleck on 1982-10-20.
Users are People
(Don Norman)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgJcUHC3qJ8].
Have confidence: they are people, not users.