81–90 of 349 posts
[1] https://en.libre.university/subject/4kitSFzUe/Web%20Programm...
And the future of operating systems is the command line. We deserve better than this reductionist thinking. Constraints can breed innovation; but they can also just constrain.
As others have mentioned, once you dig into the innards and nuances of plain text representations and formats, things can get hairy. Still, I think the author is correct in that plain text formats are certainly a better base for sharing curricula, and for knowledge production in general, than something proprietary like word docs, pdfs, etc. I think markup languages like markdown which are both fairly easy to convert…
PDFs are still ok though. There are many implementations of PDF parsers, many Open Source. It may not be as "universal" as plain-text, but it is definitely universal. At this point, I believe that all major operating systems ship with the ability to open PDFs for display.
Plaintext certainly seems more attractive the more docs I write. Over the years, with both work and personal projects, I've used every format from: - Notepad - Microsoft Word - PDF - Twiki - Various proprietary WSYWIG that compiles to HTML - JIRA - Raw HTML - Markdown (several flavors) With nearly every kind of migration, there are numerous pain points. The "raw" formats are a nightmare to edit and update, and the co…
Did you try org files ? Even if you're not into Emacs it might worth the try reading your needs
I have been meaning to look into what alternatives are out there.
www.hellolyra.com
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, go teach a 60-year-old math teacher to use TeX.
why would someone with 40+ years of math experience have such a hard time learning a new notation?
I have a kid in middle school, and he has a tablet. These things are often pushed as "educational". Pop quiz: you walk by, and you need to determine, within a couple of seconds, if what he's doing is actually educational. Here's what you see:
lots of graphics, whizzing around the screen
-or-
black alphanumeric characters against a white background
Now, you don't actually know, but generally speaking, the second is a better indicator than the first.
I realized this applies to my own work as well. There are parts of my job that I consider extremely useful to the world, and parts that I really gotta wonder about.
If I'm looking at green or white alphanumeric characters against a black background (easier on the eyes), I'm probably at a UNIX prompt, writing code that is doing something very analytical, or writing SQL. If I'm looking at graphics whizzing by, I'm either trying to figure out how to get a drop down to repopulate with the right thing pre-selected in the latest javascript framework, or, worse, I'm so irritated with javascript frameworks that I've decided to browse the web.
Again, it's not a guarantee, but I'm starting to consider a very general guideline: if you are looking at symbols and alphanumeric characters, the odds that you are building something of lasting value is much higher than if you are looking at things with elaborate UI elements.
It's not 100%. My kid could be watching Citizen Kane and developing an interesting critical point of view. He could be reading 101 fart jokes. It's not a perfect match. There are worthy and unworthy things on both sides.
But as a general rule, for culture and career - if you're looking at plain text, that's a good sign.