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Things that used to be hard and are now easy

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Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#81

Post by grishka »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #63
grishka wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh the world would've been better off if these apps didn't exist. Especially VS Code.

>Especially VS Code. Why? :c The next best thing is Atom. And, tragically, Atom is way worse. (Believe me, I wanted it to win the hackable-lite-IDE war, but... it didn't.) I don't like Microsoft, but VS Code won. Although, technically, I use "Code - OSS", which is the no-proprietary-code version.

Atom is also Electron-based. Why Electron text editors at all? I personally use Sublime and vim and don't even consider the electron ones.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#83

Post by dimgl »

wackget wrote: post #31

Eh... I'd argue against quite a lot of those being "easier" than doing things manually. Docker is a prime example. It's supposedly easier to spin up a docker container for a basic web server stack, but to be honest I'd rather install PHP/MySQL and an SSL certificate manually, rather than spend time finding a decent container from a trustworthy source, and then spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how and why it's be…

I highly disagree here. Within seconds I can have all the technology I want running in a Docker container with little to no setup. Just make a docker-compose.yml file with the services I want, say Postgres and Redis, mount my local folder to a Golang Docker image, and then I just do `docker compose up` and all three are running and communicating with each other with little to no effort.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#84

Post by dang »

adrift wrote: post #3

"Building fast programs, with Go/Rust" Sure, bud.

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN? You've been doing it a lot, unfortunately, and we ban that sort of account. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#85

Post by sofixa »

codeflo wrote: post #67
theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

I agree with all of those. More things that are harder now: * Finding honest product impressions/reviews. * When looking for a configuration setting or tip to use any piece of software, find a one minute article with clear bullet points instead of an 11 minute YouTube video with a personal backstory and a VPN sponsorship. * Finding a cooking recipe that isn’t padded with SEO nonsense. * When finding an online discuss…

> * (Europeans only.) Publish a simple website without worrying that the hosting provider you choose doesn’t perfectly conform to privacy laws that even lawyers won’t explain to you and you’re personally liable for ridiculous damages.

I'm sorry but that's just FUD. GDPR fines are only for serious infractions with intent, most violators get off with a warning. Furthermore, access logs are OK because they're a legitimate purpose, as long as there's rotation.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#86

Post by shrimp_emoji »

grishka wrote: post #81
shrimp_emoji wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Especially VS Code. Why? :c The next best thing is Atom. And, tragically, Atom is way worse. (Believe me, I wanted it to win the hackable-lite-IDE war, but... it didn't.) I don't like Microsoft, but VS Code won. Although, technically, I use "Code - OSS", which is the no-proprietary-code version.

Atom is also Electron-based. Why Electron text editors at all? I personally use Sublime and vim and don't even consider the electron ones.

If Sublime is as good, then you got me. :p (I can't say; I still need to try it.)

I love Kate, although it's less configurable/powerful than Code/Atom, but it's Linux-only.

As to vim, I use it for quick things, but I'm not hardcore enough to feel comfortable with editing in a terminal and having to re-memorize how to highlight and copy-paste text.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#87

Post by sofixa »

umvi wrote: post #54
theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

Logging into an online account on a computer you don't normally use when you don't have your phone. This can range from "had to jump through a bunch of extra hoops" to impossible if you haven't saved backup codes ahead of time (Google). My wife lost her phone when we were on vacation and it was literally impossible for us to login into her Google account in order to use find my Android. We were trying to login on a r…

That's why Google often prompt you for backup information - backup phone number, email address, which can be used to recover an account if you've lost your phone.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#88

Post by daxfohl »

theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

> Getting a job

Though negotiating is way easier with things like levels.fyi and blind.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#89

Post by codeflo »

noobermin wrote: post #76
theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

The worst part is when people somehow think all these things necessarily must follow from the things that are easier rather than suggesting we could have the good things without the worse off things.

The “old web” — the one before the rise of the trillion dollar engagement optimizing platforms — is probably completely foreign and unimaginable to those who haven’t experienced it.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#90

Post by grishka »

tomjen3 wrote: post #59
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don’t care at all about the resource usage or speed of Electron apps in 2022. Any semi-modern PC has no problem running Electron apps. Download sizes aren’t an issue with modern internet speeds. It doesn’t make sense to try to optimize for people with the slowest systems when everything is only getting faster.

I keep hearing that argument, but I also dropped Evernote for Apple notes because Evernote was too slow, even on my M1 mac. So there is definitely such a thing as optimizing your programs.

That argument is usually made by the kind of people who consider developer experience the most important part of software development. I'm on the opposite end of this spectrum: I couldn't care less about developer experience, user experience is the king.

Your users won't see your "write less code" crap and all your other "elegant" overengineered solutions that use 5 libraries for something that should be a trivial 10-line function. They'll see that your app is an unreliable resource hog that looks and feels like it's not from this world. And it's never finished. It's constantly updating but always broken one way or another. And they'll suck it up because there are no alternatives and most software these days is like this.

I'll do everything in my power to change this. It's my mission in this world. I want people to rediscover non-crappy software and have their minds blown by what modern computers can do when programmed by people who actually know what they're doing.

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