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If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

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Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#251

Post by [deleted] »

eviks wrote: post #136
jagged-chisel wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine. I'm checking the files as you say, focus changes while I'm still checking, now I have to switch back to finish checking. No. Do not want. Also, no one else needs to be deciding how my "distractions need limiting" on my computer. I can handle that myself. Provide settings, an extension framework, whatever to allow people to manage their distractions, but don't force that on me and my device.

> while I'm still checking No, you're committing the exact same error again. You stopped checking in the first 0.5 sec while the app took 1 sec to start. If you're not capable of imagining a situation where this happens like some other commenters, that's ok, but that's a different argument. > I don't get it, are you not capable of imagining a situation where You're the one deciding that!!! That's what a properly desi…

[deleted]

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#252

Post by onraglanroad »

SoftTalker wrote: post #160
cmiller1 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps its a slight overcorrection but it's better than the past where an online shop I gave my credit card info to would reply to a forgotten password request with an e-mail with my password in it in plaintext. Security used to be awful and people suffered because of it.

I wonder how many accounts have ever actually been compromised by a MITM reading passwords out of plaintext emails. I would guess it's very, very small.

No site should be able to give you your password because they should never store it. They store the hash of the password and whatever password you provide is then hashed and compared to the stored hash.

That way, when their security is compromised, the attacker doesn't get your password.

Any site giving you your password is doing it wrong because they should never know it.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#253

Post by Degorath »

pixard wrote: post #165
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually had to backpedal on my gaming PC from Kubuntu recently, I'm sad to say. The support for the RTX 5080 is just too rough. Every game install was chased by an hour of debugging with Claude to figure out which version of proton to use, which launch arguments to use, which between-system-and-gpu shim profile to use. I grant: The process is much more enjoyable than doing similar things on Windows. Kubuntu treats…

Hey may I suggest CachyOS + KDE? It’s very gaming oriented and you have a lot of great built in features. Everything just works. So far in 6 months I ran into a single issue: On day 1 of the new Subnautica early access I had to do some debugging and downgrade nvidia drivers to a previous release. But this was fixed after about a week. No other game gave any issue what so ever. I run everything on the cachy proton ver…

I would like to add that CachyOS also supports Niri, a scrolling tiling WM. As someone who long had "papercuts" from floating WMs I've had great success with it and even prefer it to something fully tiling like hyprland.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#254

Post by RGamma »

ssttoo wrote: post #240
schneems wrote: post #175

Reddit on iOS safari has been getting incrementally, nearly unusable worse. It had some sharp edges before but it seems they are moving faster now with the same or greater defect rate and shit is getting bad: - URLs commonly auto-link to the things behind them, even including spaces and words. - Pinch to zoom on the homepage causes the page to reload. Forcing you to lose your place/content. - I sometimes cannot click…

And, I noticed yesterday, old.reddit.com now requires login. Which renders a blank page on my phone. Check and mate.

I've read this on here previously but still can't reproduce it, neither from home nor mobile IP (this is in Germany).

Are they slowly rolling this out? Did you connect via VPN? I suppose they might finally feel ready to close the doors...

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#255

Post by kipchak »

hypfer wrote: post #82
markovs_gun wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The guy has clearly lost it and thus is probably not making sensible decisions" That isn't the problem though. Fascism isn't mental instability, it's an ideology. Someone going off the deep end and making bad decisions does so essentially at random, while someone driven by ideology messes things up in very specific ways. In the case of Fascist ideology, the specific ways they ruin things are specifically intended…

[flagged]

I think the trouble you are experiencing is you are basically asking people to change or update their whole framework for looking at the world. The identity portion is to some extent a load bearing column. It's like asking a hunter gatherer to think about individual property rights.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#256

Post by solaire_oa »

mrkeen wrote: post #17

I agree that software becoming worse (in some sense) but I don't blame AI. My experiences as a user haven't really changed. Streamers fail to cast to TVs. Browsers are devices which reliably and efficiently propagate red console text and 500s from companies to you. I still see bluescreens on public touchscreens. Uncle Bob nailed one reason why the industry isn't getting better: the growth of programmers is exponentia…

I generally agree that software has been getting worse, and AI isn't the cause, necessarily, but certainly is accelerating the decay.

Maybe a corollary to the growth of programmers is that pride/artisanship in the work decreases. Bugs happen more when the engineers dgaf, or aren't as dedicated to the craft. Software was pretty solid when I was a teenager (I'm thinking Windows, MSN Messenger, Flash, CDs, general web usage), complaints about tech/bugs weren't as common (or when they did happen, they were major, like BSOD). But I could just be romanticizing the past... idk.

In any case, say we were master woodworkers and we took pride in handcrafting great beds, but now the machines can make beds 150% faster at a 70% defect rate. There's 3 new problems: 1 is obviously that 30% of beds are shit, 2 is that woodworking as an industry is on the decline (expertise vacuum), and 3 is that the master woodworkers are disillusioned, their motivation and utility is decreased.

I believe that in time, the beds will get better, sure (the machines will improve). But in the meantime, huge numbers of people get shit sleep.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#257

Post by rightbyte »

watwut wrote: post #96
rightbyte wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue that fascist run FOSS projects might be working against your interest as a user. Fascist is not just a silly label. The political collapse of neoliberalism made a lot of closet fascists emerge and they seem quite common among what was earlier thought of as "techno libertarians". E.g. the VPN provider owner (forgot which) just lately. If there was too much crying wolf 15 years ago, doesn't really matte…

>,If there was too much crying wolf 15 years ago, doesn't really matter now anyways. There was not. I used to think they are crying wolf, but imo, it turned out they were correct all along. They were paying attention to what these people were saying and doing. They then concluded these people are fascists. Then a bunch of us, not paying attention crowd, came in accused them of crying wolf. Maybe, crying wolf is about…

Yeah you have a point here.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#258

Post by Atheros »

purpleflashing wrote: post #237
Yokohiii wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the UX and stability related quality will drop at such a bottom low, that some crazy companies will revive the arcane practice of UX and even study it with users. I am not super optimistic that it happens fast, but we will end up in a situation that everything becomes tedious, annoying and broken. Companies who will do it right will inspire the whole ecosystem. It will be satirical to see the full circle happ…

I am adjacent to UX as a field, and, IMO, it’s in deep crisis itself. I don’t know when or how “ergonomics” in tech became “how to sit in front of a computer” and “design” became “creating visual assets” but even people who work in the field often reduce their jobs to simplified and corporate-optimized simulacras. I am less confident about what’s happening in academia but based on my casual browsing, it’s not better.…

Evidence-based UI design maxed out in 1995 with the release of Windows 95. Evidence-based design was popular in all sorts of areas back then. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) I think is the gold-standard of set and costume design and the modern cartoon mostly follows that design. Cargo pants were in style. The MTA in New York City used this map[0] which was designed by sociologists and psychologists to be maximally useful.

The late 90s is when fashion appears to have started taking over. Apple's logo went flat grey in 1998 and Windows XP was released in 2001 and it's only gone downhill from there. Perhaps it was inevitable. When other people can see your UI, people will start using it to signal things and companies like Apple will cater to that. The designers will then be given way too much power with no accountability and then all evidence-based design gets thrown out the window.

Perhaps this is what you're seeing in academia also?

[0] https://maps-nyc.com/img/0/mta-map.jpg

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#259

Post by jagged-chisel »

eviks wrote: post #136
jagged-chisel wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine. I'm checking the files as you say, focus changes while I'm still checking, now I have to switch back to finish checking. No. Do not want. Also, no one else needs to be deciding how my "distractions need limiting" on my computer. I can handle that myself. Provide settings, an extension framework, whatever to allow people to manage their distractions, but don't force that on me and my device.

> while I'm still checking No, you're committing the exact same error again. You stopped checking in the first 0.5 sec while the app took 1 sec to start. If you're not capable of imagining a situation where this happens like some other commenters, that's ok, but that's a different argument. > I don't get it, are you not capable of imagining a situation where You're the one deciding that!!! That's what a properly desi…

> You stopped checking in the first 0.5 sec

Why do you presume to tell me how I perform a task? Do you know how many files I have to scan through to check? Do you know how far the Finder scroll has to move to show me what I want? Maybe it takes a glance. Maybe it takes ten seconds.

I don't particularly care what kind of activity you might be imagining, but nothing that steals focus should be happening without my consent. You have been arguing that it should and then later changing your argument to allowing configuration for such things.

> > I don't get it, are you not capable of imagining a situation where

I don't know where this came from, but it's not in my comments. I think your emotional response to this discussion has you conflating commenters.

If you want to advocate for configuration to allow focus stealing that's fine. But you've been arguing as if it's silly that anyone would want it any other way than you.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#260

Post by eviks »

etdznots wrote: post #163
eviks wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read my comment? Which of these 3 settings allows focus steal, but not during typing?

Turing complete focus filter policy language and evaluator

I'd settle for a few "if/else"s
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