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The Art of Unix Programming dedicates a chapter to the advantages of using text for the input and output of programs: http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/htm

by gpcz 11y ago

The Art of Unix Programming dedicates a chapter to the advantages of using text for the input and output of programs: http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/textualitychapter.html http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/textualitychapte... . They also note that Unix and its derivatives are one of the oldest operating system paradigms still in active use, and that it has migrated to everything from smartphones to supercomputers. In a way, by using a Unix-like OS you are betting on text. On the other hand, I would argue that engineering, architecture, and industry rely heavily on visual languages such as technical drawings, blueprints, control/process flow diagrams, etc. Text is a good bet, but it's inadequate for a lot of problems related to the physical world that require spatial reasoning.

douche 11y ago
I think one of the commonalities there is that that kind of pictorial information still shares many of the advantages of text, namely that they are searchable, asynchronous, and permanent. Speech is often problematic, because it is so ephemeral, unless extra pains are taken to record it. Ideally, you'd have voice recordings or at least good minutes taken of an in-person meeting or telephone call(which actually just turns it back into text...), so that the information doesn't just disappear into fallible meat-memory. The other problem is that it is a real-time communication. You can only consume the content at a single rate - you can't speed through the filler or go back and reread something that didn't at first make sense. With recorded video or audio, you can sort of do this, but it is so slow, compared to reading speed, and it's not like you can just Ctrl-F through it
- varjag 11y ago
  Additionally, speech is also less coherent than text, unless it's a rehearsed performance. Most people do very fluid re-formulation and editing even when using instant messaging. With speech, backtracking is basically impossible.
nicklaf 11y ago
On the other hand, I would argue that engineering, architecture, and industry rely heavily on visual languages such as technical drawings, blueprints, control/process flow diagrams, etc. Text is a good bet, but it's inadequate for a lot of problems related to the physical world that require spatial reasoning. Agreed. Diagrams can of course be expressed as text, but would you rather read SVG XML, or look at the actual diagram?
GauntletWizard 11y ago
There's advances in structured records since then, but text-mode is still important. JSON is somewhere between structured binary and text; Protobufs define a canonical text version and easy tooling to convert to and back. I've debugged a bunch of applications by making RPC calls directly.

by gpcz 11y ago

douche 11y ago

I think one of the commonalities there is that that kind of pictorial information still shares many of the advantages of text, namely that they are searchable, asynchronous, and permanent. Speech is often problematic, because it is so ephemeral, unless extra pains are taken to record it. Ideally, you'd have voice recordings or at least good minutes taken of an in-person meeting or telephone call(which actually just turns it back into text...), so that the information doesn't just disappear into fallible meat-memory. The other problem is that it is a real-time communication. You can only consume the content at a single rate - you can't speed through the filler or go back and reread something that didn't at first make sense. With recorded video or audio, you can sort of do this, but it is so slow, compared to reading speed, and it's not like you can just Ctrl-F through it

varjag 11y ago
Additionally, speech is also less coherent than text, unless it's a rehearsed performance. Most people do very fluid re-formulation and editing even when using instant messaging. With speech, backtracking is basically impossible.

nicklaf 11y ago

On the other hand, I would argue that engineering, architecture, and industry rely heavily on visual languages such as technical drawings, blueprints, control/process flow diagrams, etc. Text is a good bet, but it's inadequate for a lot of problems related to the physical world that require spatial reasoning. Agreed. Diagrams can of course be expressed as text, but would you rather read SVG XML, or look at the actual diagram?

GauntletWizard 11y ago

There's advances in structured records since then, but text-mode is still important. JSON is somewhere between structured binary and text; Protobufs define a canonical text version and easy tooling to convert to and back. I've debugged a bunch of applications by making RPC calls directly.