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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?

#271

Post by thaumasiotes »

eviks wrote: post #212
inigyou wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else do you expect though? You launched a long running task. It is done. Microwave goes ding.

My expectation is described in the comment you replied to and side comments Microwave's ding is also bad UI, especially when it's repetitive as it's just useless noise. But even the first ding - what value does it have if you already have exactly the same notification category - audio cue - built right there in the process: the machine noise disappears when it stops working.

The microwave in my house continues making the operating noise after it finishes microwaving.

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

#272

Post by zamadatix »

grim_io wrote: post #269
frameset wrote: post #37

> I opened Slack on macOS, the icon kept bouncing in the dock for a few seconds. I got impatient, switched to Ghostty, and started typing. Just then, the Slack window appeared, stole focus from Ghostty and the git pull command was sent to the group chat. One of my absolute favourite features on KDE Plasma with Wayland is the global setting to control what can steal focus. It works wonderfully, and I always miss it wh…

That would only happen if you were not looking at the text you are typing. A-Are you looking DOWN ON THE KEYBOARD?!

I think there is a law of the universe which says it must happen right after you've mentally decided to type enter but before your fingers have finished.

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

#274

Post by LoganDark »

tgv wrote: post #121
fer wrote: post #34

> I opened Slack on macOS, the icon kept bouncing in the dock for a few seconds. I got impatient, switched to Ghostty, and started typing. Just then, the Slack window appeared, stole focus from Ghostty and the git pull command was sent to the group chat. I still don't understand how a full focus stealability debounce is not the norm. If I am in the middle of writing, or interacting with one UI bit in any way, no othe…

Curiously, macOS is capable of putting a recently opened app out of focus. It happens consistently on my laptop when I haven't rebooted it for a while. It may be a bug, but it could be a feature, especially when it's conditioned by the user clicking in another window before launch completion.

For me, macOS seems to put opened apps out of focus when I have started doing something else since launching them, or when they were launched from elsewhere than the active app (eg by a terminal that's not in the foreground).

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

#275

Post by grim_io »

I've seen some shit.

I'm confident to say that right now, AI already does a better job at turning a well-specified requirement into working code than the average meatbag I've personally encountered.

It's still useless at many other things that make a complete Software Developer, but let's be real: Programming (requirements in, code out) is solved for the stuff I'm involved in.

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

#277

Post by mancerayder »

> We’ve reached a point where an update to macOS — or to any app I rely on, really — is a source of dread rather than excitement. I now expect the new version to be worse.

I actually relate to that. It used to be cool and exciting to update to see what new things are coming for free. I was just looking up what Fedora Workstation 45 might bring.

Updates on phones, TV's, cars and non-Linux operating systems on PC's/laptops are downright scary to me now. What will they add that I don't want? What more connectivity to the external world are they going to wire in?

MacOS lost everyone's trust by ruining the experience, but even before it happened that trying to resize a window makes it feel like life will be at 80 years-old, hunting a tiny invisible border, even before that there wasn't anything exciting.

What Microsoft I think did (and I can't prove it), before I moved off of Windows 11, was to bundle all changes in "required security updates." So you have no choice but to update (or go through special settings to turn it off, or just defer it), but when the machine comes back you have a new Welcome prompt to some new connectivity to something nefarious. AI features I never asked for, that's the most recent dark pattern here.

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

#278

Post by watersb »

frameset wrote: post #37

> I opened Slack on macOS, the icon kept bouncing in the dock for a few seconds. I got impatient, switched to Ghostty, and started typing. Just then, the Slack window appeared, stole focus from Ghostty and the git pull command was sent to the group chat. One of my absolute favourite features on KDE Plasma with Wayland is the global setting to control what can steal focus. It works wonderfully, and I always miss it wh…

1000x this.

The single most soul-crushing experience I have on today's tech is the whoopee cushion.

I type this on a touch device that randomly Cheevers the words. (It literally changed "changes" just now. Henceforth, my word for this shall be Cheevers.) it Cheevers the words. It offers suggested words that you can tap to complete the word you're typing, and milliseconds before your finger makes contact with the screen, the suggested word flips to Cheevers and your finger taps that.

Now with the new improved iOS Liquid Glass, and possibly with janky web app development kits, buttons can move as you try to click on them. UI animation was supposed to help the user. But helping the user is hard.

Pop ups. The web needs more pop ups. More "Are you enjoying this app?" in your face.

But on the desktop, I recall complaining to a Windows (the OS) developer about stealing focus... in 1995. At the time, classic macOS tended not to do this, but it happened quite often multitasking on Windows, and I couldn't offer any constructive feedback, no obvious solution.

The sheer unpredictability, at 100 millisecond time scale... a few hours of this and I'm literally shaking. Because it affects muscle response, a startle reaction. Keeps firing away at the limbic system.

If I wanted slot-machine online gambling levels of simulation, I'd go to a casino. I hate this stuff. I hate where "engagement" metrics and the quest for more clicks has brought us.

Make it stop. I'm trying to work, here.

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

#279

Post by ssttoo »

RGamma wrote: post #254
ssttoo wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

No VPN just home, in California

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

#280

Post by groby_b »

ndriscoll wrote: post #115
frameset wrote: post #37

> I opened Slack on macOS, the icon kept bouncing in the dock for a few seconds. I got impatient, switched to Ghostty, and started typing. Just then, the Slack window appeared, stole focus from Ghostty and the git pull command was sent to the group chat. One of my absolute favourite features on KDE Plasma with Wayland is the global setting to control what can steal focus. It works wonderfully, and I always miss it wh…

Yeah the obvious answer to software getting worse is to switch to FOSS. Use Linux/KDE. It's been great for a long time and only ever gets better. It's as if Windows 7 just continued to slowly iterate and add useful polish. NixOS has a longstanding issue where library loading (and therefore program start, particularly GUI programs that load a lot) is n^2, but programs still all start in ~1 second or less on my n100 mi…

> Use Linux/KDE.

Yep. I, too, get more productive by spending a PhD worth of effort on choosing a window manager.

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