On Mon, 2007-21-05 at 13:04 +0100, Rodrigo Queiro wrote:
My friend read your email and remarked: "How is this guy not embarrassed posting on the internet about not liking vim because he doesn't like editing config files?"
Because, unlike your friend, I actually have seen the advances in HID
over the past 30 years. Editing text files is not the be-all/end-all of
user interfaces. Indeed there is astonishingly high volumes of evidence
showing that it's a pretty miserable user interface -- a misery
amplified by the fact that every two-bit program has its own entirely
unique syntax (usually broken in many exciting ways!) full of cryptic
commands and settings. Don't believe it? Go to your home directory and
compare all the .<files> you find. You really think it's a good thing
to maintain each of those manually?
Oh, and of course it wasn't just the config files I showed problems
with, now, was it? I seem to remember something about modality and bad
syntax highlighting. Maybe I was tripping. It happens.
For your friend's reference, here's a good outline of what principles
underlie HID: http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html. For
even more modern outlooks, I'm sure a quick search at Amazon.com (or his
bookseller of choice) can give him other ideas.
So am I embarrassed for asking for something resembling a 21st-century
user interface instead of a 1970s vintage one? Not in the slightest.
--
Michael T. Richter