Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#11

Post by robertlagrant » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 9:59 AM UTC

I'd suggest not software at all.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#12

Post by gryn » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:00 AM UTC

Nit really spark joy but more if a relief from everything that seems to need a database is obsidian and the community plugins. Your database is your markdown files which mean I don't have to rely on it can edit the files from terminal when I want.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#13

Post by onion2k » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:00 AM UTC

whimsical.com is a really nice diagram builder that just works. Everything is intuitive. I've built some reasonably complex diagrams in it without every needing to refer to a help page. It's great.

I'll also give Excel a shout. It's brilliant. The learning curve is steep, but once you're there it's a joy to use.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#14

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:02 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#15

Post by sourcecodeplz » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:02 AM UTC

robertlagrant wrote: post #11

I'd suggest not software at all.

Yes, pen & paper ftw. Get some stamps and envelopes too, then start playing chess via correspondence.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#16

Post by zarzavat » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:02 AM UTC

Not current by any means but the original TextMate. Beautiful in its simplicity and you felt like you were using the editor of the future, which you were because everybody uses TM grammars now.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#17

Post by arespredator » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:02 AM UTC

HashiCorp Nomad

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#18

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:03 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#19

Post by uniqueuid » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:03 AM UTC

What consistently amazes and pleases me is software that cleverly uses algorithms and data structures to prevent complexity. In particular, everything CRDT-like still seems like magic to me.

So I'm unreasonably excited by bittorrent, storage based on consistent hashing, and rsync (rolling checksums are just amazing).

Interestingly I hate distributed consensus with a passion because it always seems to achieve the opposite - causing more complexity.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#20

Post by blueappconfig » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 10:04 AM UTC

Starting Blender and changing to Cycles render mode and seeing how the shadow falls over the items you place has always felt special to me.