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The Software Crisis

wryl.tech

171–180 of 201 posts

Re: The Software Crisis

#171

Shallow and composable is something we all experience when using UNIX tooling. GUIs are where this all falls apart as they are literal islands that don’t communicate with each other in a composable manner. I’ve been experimenting with some GUI-meets-shell-pipeline ideas with a tool I’ve been working on call guish. https://github.com/williamcotton/guish I’m curious to know if anyone knows of any similar tools or appro…

> I’m curious to know if anyone knows of any similar tools or approaches to composable GUIs!

I believe the emacs architecture is the answer. emacs is not just a CLI, it's not just a GUI, it's a wonderful (but archaic) matchup of both, where they integrate seamlessly.

I am currently working on some ideas on this as well, my idea even looks superficially similar to yours, but I would say you should look into how this works in emacs as I feel like your approach is not really very "composable" (though I haven't looked very deep, sorry).

EDIT: perhaps this may also inspire you, in case you don't know it: https://gtoolkit.com/ (Smalltalk environment where literally everything is programmable, just like in emacs but kind of the other way around: the GUI is language itself, not a result of its commands).

Re: The Software Crisis

#172

I don't think we have a software crisis. Millions of programmers are able to create more or less useful programs all over the word; everything including your toaster is running software on it succesfully enough; and the community was able to build programs that are accessible to all from a 5 year old kid all the way to your grandparents. Where is the crisis in it? However, we have a project management crisis, which i…

> everything including your toaster is running software Doesn't that just support the author's claim that there's too much software? FTR, my Dualit toaster doesn't run software.

I don't see how, unless you start with the assumption that more software is inherently a bad thing.

Re: The Software Crisis

#173
post #16

Hi! Author here. I think it's important to address certain aspects of this post that people tend to misunderstand, so I'll just list them here to save myself the effort. * I do not argue against abstractions, but against the unrestricted application of them. * I do not advocate for a reversion to more constrained platforms as a solution. * I do not advocate for users becoming "more technical" in a "suck it up" fashio…

You claim to be the author of Modal [0]. While Modal might not be your "solution" it is likely aligns with what you have in mind philosophically. Modal seems like some sorta pattern matching lisp. I dont think im alone in being skeptical that a "pattern matching lisp" is going to be the "solution" to the software complexity problem.

[0] https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/modal

Re: The Software Crisis

#174
post #16

Hi! Author here. I think it's important to address certain aspects of this post that people tend to misunderstand, so I'll just list them here to save myself the effort. * I do not argue against abstractions, but against the unrestricted application of them. * I do not advocate for a reversion to more constrained platforms as a solution. * I do not advocate for users becoming "more technical" in a "suck it up" fashio…

My problem with your article is that it seems to operate on the misconception that someone must completely understand from top to bottom the entire stack of abstractions they operate atop in all of its gory and granular detail in order to get anything done, and so a larger tower of abstractions means a higher mountain to climb up in order to do something. But that's simply the opposite of the case: the purpose of abs…

[deleted]

Re: The Software Crisis

#175

> It is no longer easy to build software It is very easy if you know the right tools for the right job, but information about these are suppressed so you never hear about them. What the vast majority of people think the tech tooling landscape looks like and what it actually looks like are very different. The tools we know about are mostly horrible. They try to be silver bullets but they're really not good for anythin…

> with the tool I'm using now

Correction: with the tool you created and are not-so-subtly trying to market right now. Complete with an $18/mo subscription fee, no users and (of course) a cryptocurrency that's fueled by promises and hype.

No, despite the conspiratorial twist, modern tooling is more flexible and easier to use than ever before. It has flaws, but those flaws are nothing compared to what developers had to go through a couple of decades ago. There's no big collusion to cover up your tool.

Re: The Software Crisis

#176
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everything including your toaster is running software Doesn't that just support the author's claim that there's too much software? FTR, my Dualit toaster doesn't run software.

I don't see how, unless you start with the assumption that more software is inherently a bad thing.

I don't assume that; I simply observe that a toaster doesn't need software, that simple machines are more likely to be reliable than complex machines, and that the ability to run software makes a machine inherently more complex than (say) a clockwork timer.

I have no opinion on how much is too much software. But perhaps if we are employing people to write software for toasters, then we have too many programmers.

Re: The Software Crisis

#177

Shallow and composable is something we all experience when using UNIX tooling. GUIs are where this all falls apart as they are literal islands that don’t communicate with each other in a composable manner. I’ve been experimenting with some GUI-meets-shell-pipeline ideas with a tool I’ve been working on call guish. https://github.com/williamcotton/guish I’m curious to know if anyone knows of any similar tools or appro…

I'm a fan of KNIME (https://www.knime.com/) for those "Sunday Driver" pipelines that I use heavily for a few days or a week and then shelve for months at a time. It uses Python / Pandas as its code layer.

Re: The Software Crisis

#179

> It is no longer easy to build software It is very easy if you know the right tools for the right job, but information about these are suppressed so you never hear about them. What the vast majority of people think the tech tooling landscape looks like and what it actually looks like are very different. The tools we know about are mostly horrible. They try to be silver bullets but they're really not good for anythin…

Web3 / popular crypto is not my bailiwick (although I like math and so unpopular crypto). Your video is three hours long, I'm not going to watch the whole thing, and leave it at that. That's not a slight, but three hours for something which I already feel isn't going to deliver something I can use today, next week, or this month. I'm a big believer in no/low code and run-anywhere... although those might also not mean what you think I mean. Props for you for doing it.

So, I started watching your video and the first question I had was: what are Codespaces? How is it secured? Where does the final app run? Can I run it on my hardware? Can I run it without cloud access? Which cloud? Will it be around next week, next month, next year... ten years from now? However don't pay too much attention to a sample of one. ;-)

I think the situation with no/low code can be summed up by analogy to desktop publishing. There is no CI/CD pipeline for DTP: you press print; it is a fully integrated environment... unlike literally all of the "continuous integration" environments which try so hard they can't stop shouting about it because it's eating them alive. Somewhere there might be a tool for generating color seps, setting gutters, importing fonts or creating postscript header libraries or LaTeX; but you'll never use it or see it. Somewhere, somebody is still doing multi-plate prints with pigments exhibiting greater variety than CMYK that are only vibrant in natural light; most people don't see the point because all they get is a crappy snapshot on their phone. It's not just a creator problem, consumers don't know what's possible and don't possess devices which fully reveal the full scope of what's possible. Consumer devices actively compromise that full scope for myriad walled-garden reasons, as well as run-of-the-mill negligence and ignorance.

I got a Cadillac as a rental a few years ago, and I'll never buy a modern Cadillac and avoid driving one if possible. I couldn't control the windshield wipers, and the console display flashed the most attention-grabbing WARNING several times that I was not looking at the road, presumably because it couldn't suss that I was wearing glasses. I didn't actually look at the console display since it happened at high speeds in heavy traffic on an unfamiliar road (I had a passenger, and I asked them "WTF is that flashing screen saying??!?"); good job, Cadillac!

Re: The Software Crisis

#180
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes to this. Lately I feel like we have built a society with expansive software infrastructure, where that software is doomed to be crappy and inhumane because our society actually couldn't afford to build this quantity of software well. So another hypothetical fantasy solution would be a lot less software, like being careful about where we used software, using it in fewer places, so that we could collectively afford…

Our society / societies may well be able to afford to build this quantity of software well. We choose not to.

Humanity could easily afford to provide proper healthcare and schooling for every person on the planet if we didn't spend so much money on our collective militaries too, but "we" don't.

Getting everybody (or even a minority of any sufficient size) to act in service to a single goal has been a problem for humanity ever since we first invented society.

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