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Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

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Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#41

Post by bayindirh »

prodigalknight wrote: post #20
ungreased0675 wrote: post #16

I run headless Alpine Linux (a minimal distro) in my homelab and it’s fast AF. The lag in Windows Explorer is sad when something like cd folder/folder is instant in Linux.

To be fair, cd folder/folder is also instant in a command line in Windows, it's just the GUI aspects that are slow. Comparing Windows Explorer to a terminal is comparing apples to oranges.

I don't think so. Windows is a GUI first OS, and Linux is a CLI first (or even CLI native) OS. You can't open a command line window in Windows without loading more than half of the desktop stack.

In that sense, when a terminal (running on a desktop environment) in Linux is faster than Windows Explorer, it's a shame. When a big file explorer like Dolphin drives circles around native file explorer of Windows, that's a big ole embarrassment.

Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#42

Post by benj111 »

sfn42 wrote: post #19
thunderbong wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No code is faster than no code

Faster at doing nothing?

Yes.

If you want to do foo. You don't need framework bar to load baz or call home to qux.

That's all added complexity that isn't inherent to the task.

So we aren't talking about not doing bar. We are talking about not doing all the other things that aren't for the benefit of the user.

Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#44

Post by Sesse__ »

rossant wrote: post #10

I fully agree. I loathe slow software. I hate bloat. I love fast software. As a developer, I'm completely, even irrationally, obsessed with speed, performance optimization, and profiling. I wish more developers felt the same way.

The sad part is that most employers don't care particularly about performance optimization skills (the economics don't work out, they can often just fix the problem cheaper with more hardware—and even if they can't, they mostly don't bear the cost themselves).

The fun part is that when your employer _does_ care about software optimization, few people are actually good at it and your skills are more exclusive :-)

Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#45

Post by hansvm »

ivanjermakov wrote: post #21

> Google Maps has gotten so slow When it comes to navigating (except public transit), hiking, and route building, Organic Maps[1] is very good. OSM data and offline-first is the way forward for detailed and _fast_ map experience. For cycling route building I have to mention BRouter[2], which allows you to write a custom cost function that is used to tweak your route preferences. [1]: https://organicmaps.app/ [2]: htt…

I remember an engineer I talked to recently saying that OSM didn't have sufficiently up-to-date data for their routing use case -- new roads, closed roads, traffic data, etc. Is that the case?

Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#47

Post by qup »

archargelod wrote: post #38
countWSS wrote: post #34

The neglected part here is latency, speed itself can be masked by progress bars/animations, but having visible lag ruins the idea of speed and users treat it as slow vs animated loading bar.

Maybe it's me who's weird, but I find animations as much worse - it's basically pointless and wastes slightly more time (even when program is fast enough!). The interface without animations feels snappier even if sometimes it takes a second to load. I disable any and all animations in software that I can - particularly in Android (via developer settings) and Linux (i3+vim vs something like KDE+VScode).

As a kid I liked the interfaces that lagged badly, but still accepted input perfectly.

It felt like I was racing. Type the whole message before the screen updates? Check.

I miss AOL sometimes.

Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#48

Post by fuzzfactor »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #30
ungreased0675 wrote: post #16

I run headless Alpine Linux (a minimal distro) in my homelab and it’s fast AF. The lag in Windows Explorer is sad when something like cd folder/folder is instant in Linux.

I really don't understand how you can even create software that feels as bad to use as Windows Explorer. It's like it's barely attached to reality. There's this weird floaty delay in everything. You copy a file, or did you? You're not sure. It hasn't updated yet. Oh, now the copy dialog appears with this progress bar that isn't showing progress. The dialog just sits there. Is something happening? I don't know. Many s…

>I really don't understand how you can even create software that feels as bad to use as Windows Explorer.

I was wondering how bad a sign it was when the decline in performance between Windows 95 and Windows 98 was detectable in many ways, but nobody was complaining because it was not always noticeable on PCs that were 3 years newer. You had to figure Microsoft developers had way better PCs than that, and didn't have any clue at all.

Turns out my suspicions were correct, it was the insidiously ignored ramp-up to exponential amounts of sluggishness as time marches on.

You know, like a snail without a shell :(

Re: Fast Software, the Best Software (2019)

#49

Post by carlosjobim »

ivanjermakov wrote: post #21

> Google Maps has gotten so slow When it comes to navigating (except public transit), hiking, and route building, Organic Maps[1] is very good. OSM data and offline-first is the way forward for detailed and _fast_ map experience. For cycling route building I have to mention BRouter[2], which allows you to write a custom cost function that is used to tweak your route preferences. [1]: https://organicmaps.app/ [2]: htt…

https://www.cycle.travel is also excellent for cycling routes. Made by a solo developer as far as I remember.
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