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Cool but obscure X11 tools

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Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#101

Post by Sammi »

microcolonel wrote: post #41
dexen wrote: post #26

>XLennart is a modification of the arcade game XBill. >An evil and unpopular computer hacker named “Lennart”[1] tries to install his malicious init system on various BSD and Linux systems. >Like in XBill, the player has to hit him and restore infected systems. [1] https://cyber.dabamos.de/unix/x11/poettering.gif

For clarity, Lennart Poettering is an extremely prolific guy that people somehow love to hate. At the end of the day, his critics either use his software begrudgingly, or use somebody else's to their own detriment, just to spite him. I take some time every year to thank Lennart for systemd and PulseAudio; I remember when the grass was parched brown on my side, green has been a welcome change!

Relevant talk:

The Tragedy of systemd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_AIw9bGogo

"systemd is, to put it mildly, controversial. As a FreeBSD developer I decided I wanted to know why.

I delved into the history of bootstrap systems, and even the history of UNIX and other contemporary operating systems, to try and work out why something like systemd was seem as necessary, if not desirable. I also tried to work out why so many people found it so upsetting, annoying, or otherwise rage-inducing.

Join me on a journey through the bootstrap process, the history of init, the reasons why change can be scary, and the discovery of a part of your OS you may not even know existed."

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#102

Post by davidcollantes »

ptx wrote: post #66

The GTK screenshots all use then ThinIce theme[1] – still my favorite, but sadly not available for GTK 3 or 4. And I guess it wouldn't fit with GNOME's current design direction anyway. [1] http://thinice.sourceforge.net/

I don't think so. Those look like the original CDE Motif Window Manager[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(software)

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#103

Post by dexen »

scrollaway wrote: post #76
craigsmansion wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget to thank him for `avahi' too. Avahi is a fun whack-a-mole game where your computer hides the network connection. You win the game by remembering to kill processes and setting up stuff manually, like most games produced by LP studios. edit: Other popular games include: SystemD: hack your way through a blob of intractability. Try it on Nightmare mode, where you're only given access to a empty bootscreen, f…

Lennart Poettering is a dev who has contributed massive amounts of code most people in this thread use every hour of every day. Code which, for most people, does work. It's not like free software has a shortage of talented contributors that people hate for a variety of reasons. At some point you have to actually point out the issues productively, rather than the boring character assassination, or just randomly saying…

>Code which, for most people, does work.

Working is not the problematic part. There are two interrelated problems: how much complexity is introduced, and how to proceed when something is not working, or is flaky.

You, me, and our fellow posters know very well that Lennart's solutions are complex - in fact, more complex than the problem domain. Accordingly, the ability to narrow down, fix, or work around problems suffers. Systemd and PulseAudio aren't UNIX applications [1]; they are entirely new, rather opaque, sub-systems unto themselves. Thus they require separate knowledge, separate intuition, and separate skills.

All so I can seamlessly play music on TWO bluetooth speakers while also browsing logs without learning regex.

>Lennart Poettering is a dev who has contributed MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF CODE

Massive amounts of code is a clear and present problem. Why is the solution more complex than the problem domain? Why is the success being measured by magnitude of effort, rather than by barriers removed, and standards adhered to?

--

[1] what makes an UNIX application? small POSIX applications tied together with shell scripts, communicating via pipes, exposing services as files, following the `Worse is better' and `Do one thing, and do it well' principles.

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#104

Post by rjsw »

gmueckl wrote: post #33
reirob wrote: post #7

As well DDD the X11 front-end for GDB [1]. Helped me quite a lot around 2003. [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/

I still miss a good debugging GUI with useful data visualizations. Sometimes staring at pointers and (multidimensional) arrays of numbers just isn't enough.

Why do you miss that, I used ddd yesterday.

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#105

Post by rjsw »

machinecoffee wrote: post #51

Ah Motif, XBill and Afterstep! My nostalgia bit just got set. My first experiences of GUI programming on Unix (HPUX on a Motorola 68040 machine) was with Motif, which was a pretty good toolkit after you got used to the very long function names.

I'm typing this on a desktop running mwm and emacs linked against motif.

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#106

Post by pjmlp »

randolando wrote: post #97
scrollaway wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lennart Poettering is a dev who has contributed massive amounts of code most people in this thread use every hour of every day. Code which, for most people, does work. It's not like free software has a shortage of talented contributors that people hate for a variety of reasons. At some point you have to actually point out the issues productively, rather than the boring character assassination, or just randomly saying…

The problem is the fundamental shift away from the long accepted design philosophy of software doing one thing and doing it well. This means "grown adults" can't uninstall the software components that they like, because they aren't individual components anymore. Systemd would probably not be hated on as much if it was only a "better" init. But instead it is an opaque and centralized system that is replacing a growing…

You mean the myth of the UNIX way, never followed upon commercial UNIXes and somehow became a cargo cult on FOSS community only thank to a book of UNIX idols?

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#107

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

microcolonel wrote: post #41
dexen wrote: post #26

>XLennart is a modification of the arcade game XBill. >An evil and unpopular computer hacker named “Lennart”[1] tries to install his malicious init system on various BSD and Linux systems. >Like in XBill, the player has to hit him and restore infected systems. [1] https://cyber.dabamos.de/unix/x11/poettering.gif

For clarity, Lennart Poettering is an extremely prolific guy that people somehow love to hate. At the end of the day, his critics either use his software begrudgingly, or use somebody else's to their own detriment, just to spite him. I take some time every year to thank Lennart for systemd and PulseAudio; I remember when the grass was parched brown on my side, green has been a welcome change!

After his foolish use of alloca() in systemd was revealed, it's clear that the derision is well deserved. One would think that after cutting his teeth on PulseAudio he'd have learned how to write safe, system level C.

Re: Cool but obscure X11 tools

#110

Post by libria »

joezydeco wrote: post #90

Free42 is also available for iOS and Android. It's very handy, especially when I can keep my real 42S safe in a drawer at home. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/free42/id337692629 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thomasokke...

The rendering on that 42s is close enough that I can almost feel the buttons. Never thought I'd describe a calculator as sensual, but HP's of that era had such a distinct look and feel.
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