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Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

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Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#591

Post by netheril96 »

therealmarv wrote: post #574
netheril96 wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome has color problems? I am curious about this. Can you point me to more specifics?

look at the linked chrome bug link. But you can also see it yourself. Open an image you know very well on both Chrome and Safari and compare side by side. I can even see it on opening http://imgur.com in Chrome and Safari and comparing the results. I recognize it the most on skin tones. Chrome is washed out a little and in Safari it looks nice. You can see it even more on videos. Go to the same minute/second and comp…

I don't find any difference.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#592

Post by lucb1e »

enthdegree wrote: post #569
lucb1e wrote: post #242

Windows: "Everything" (that's the name). A lightweight, fast and advanced (if you want it) file search engine. Linux: Most tools of course, as they are made with the Unix philosophy, but these days I'm most surprised by print drivers for Linux. Where in Windows the printer is always magically offline or slow, from Linux I can print and scan very reliably. Vim is also worth learning, it makes editing much more... rela…

Latex does not belong on the list. I have not been using it as long as many, but it does not meet OP's description at all. It's entire premise is to put the focus on writing, but at that it fails miserably. Left to over 30 years of growth outside of its intended use case, LaTeX proper does nothing you would need it to, and the packages that you use with it are horribly fragmented. Maybe Latex is good at the things it…

I fully understand where you're coming from. Its syntax is weird at times and everything has to be magically done with yet another package, very few things seem to be built in.

On the other hand, I don't know another environment that makes it as easy as LaTeX makes it. Markdown is easier but far from powerful enough; HTML is nowhere near as easy and just not really made for it; and WYSIWYG editors just suck as a whole. LaTeX seemed to me as everything I was looking for, even if the syntax and methods are from the eighties.

Additionally, enough people use it that support is also not an issue. There are almost certainly other languages that do a similar job in a modern way, but the thing is, my girlfriend studies math and she can read/write these documents too. The network effect works in LaTeX' favor here.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#593

Post by mrkgnao »

blakeyrat wrote: post #310
repeek wrote: post #208

1Password on Mac - phenomenal UX, all around joy to use Not as pleased with the Windows version, but it's serviceable

Starting from the top, I think you're the first person to mention user experience. Man, this topic has done nothing but remind me how far I am outside the "software development mainstream". Vim? Git? Are there seriously that many developers who enjoy using such unusable software?

The difference between vim and, say, Notepad++ as "programmer's editors" is that one is easy to start with, but you soon reach a limiting level of competence, beyond which your tools cannot take you. With vim, this does not happen, at least not for a very long time. Such tools are indeed hard to learn, but, properly used, they amplify your skills far beyond what you can do with "consumer-grade" software.

A child with a keyboard that has prerecorded music on it has much more fun with it than they would with a grand piano. And that's perfectly fine! However, if you're a professional pianist, you're going to want to go the Steinway route, even though it takes decades of practice to really make sense on one.

(Perhaps violins would make more sense as an example?)

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#594

Post by bunnybender »

SchizoDuckie wrote: post #123

Total Commander. I've been using it since the first versions that came out for Windows 3.1 and it provided a smooth Windows transition from Norton Commander for DOS. The changelog goes back all the way to 2002, but it's been there for waaay longer. ( http://ghisler.com/whatsnew.htm ) I hope he continues to make a healthy income from it. It's litterally the best piece of shareware in the world in my eyes, that i've ha…

My dual-panel, multi-tabbed file manager of choice has been the free Multi Commander: http://multicommander.com/

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#595

Post by suby »

RachelF wrote: post #464
suby wrote: post #125

I don't use it anymore because it's Windows only, but Foobar2000 was damn near perfect for a music player.

You could run it under Wine

Yeah, I tried it under wine. It suffered from graphical and audio glitches. I'm sure if I fiddled with it I could have gotten it to work quite well, but I didn't have the patience for it.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#597

Post by stirner »

barsonme wrote: post #280
lucb1e wrote: post #242

Windows: "Everything" (that's the name). A lightweight, fast and advanced (if you want it) file search engine. Linux: Most tools of course, as they are made with the Unix philosophy, but these days I'm most surprised by print drivers for Linux. Where in Windows the printer is always magically offline or slow, from Linux I can print and scan very reliably. Vim is also worth learning, it makes editing much more... rela…

If you've any latex pointers I'd appreciate it :) I used latex to write a paper for the first time last week, and while i thoroughly enjoyed it, i'm fairly confident there were lots of things I could've done better.

Many resources have been suggested, but not the guide written by the creator of TeX and computer science legend Donald Knuth: http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#598

Post by stirner »

barsonme wrote: post #280
lucb1e wrote: post #242

Windows: "Everything" (that's the name). A lightweight, fast and advanced (if you want it) file search engine. Linux: Most tools of course, as they are made with the Unix philosophy, but these days I'm most surprised by print drivers for Linux. Where in Windows the printer is always magically offline or slow, from Linux I can print and scan very reliably. Vim is also worth learning, it makes editing much more... rela…

If you've any latex pointers I'd appreciate it :) I used latex to write a paper for the first time last week, and while i thoroughly enjoyed it, i'm fairly confident there were lots of things I could've done better.

Many resources have been suggested, but not the guide written by the creator of TeX and computer science legend Donald Knuth: http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf

Re: Ask HN: Examples of reliable software you enjoy using

#600

Post by oxplot »

shermanyo wrote: post #442
lucb1e wrote: post #242

Windows: "Everything" (that's the name). A lightweight, fast and advanced (if you want it) file search engine. Linux: Most tools of course, as they are made with the Unix philosophy, but these days I'm most surprised by print drivers for Linux. Where in Windows the printer is always magically offline or slow, from Linux I can print and scan very reliably. Vim is also worth learning, it makes editing much more... rela…

> Vim is also worth learning, it makes editing much more... relaxed I guess. No longer have to move your mouse to the arrow keys or even the mouse/touchpad to scroll or select. It also helps that it exists on nearly every Unix system you'll ever connect to. People often talk about the speed of use, but this is (IMO) a result of its efficiency. I liked your use of the word 'relaxed', I'd add: slow down your actions so…

Some more examples:

"delete inside quotes" == di"

"select all of the block" == va{

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