4 ms·

One part of me thinks it's terribly romantic to envision a world where the professional gets to use the big, grand tools to practice his craft, but I think it's

by 59nadir 10y ago

One part of me thinks it's terribly romantic to envision a world where the professional gets to use the big, grand tools to practice his craft, but I think it's actually more comforting to know that anyone with access to the most basic tools can create. It might seem like we're all forced down to the lowest common denominator, but I think the playing field might be better for it. The article mentions Emacs (and I would add vim) and throughout I could only think about these two. They are the tools that reward learning and multiply your efficiency. It doesn't all have to exist in hardware. You can always get one of these(0). 0 - http://www.dx.com/p/fs3-p-tri-pedal-usb-foot-switch-controller-black-142964#.V3Nvl_l96JA http://www.dx.com/p/fs3-p-tri-pedal-usb-foot-switch-controll...

Asooka 10y ago
Visual Studio. The grand tool the author is thinking of is Visual Studio. It is light years ahead of anything vim and emacs can do, though I concede that basic text entry and editing is slightly more clunky in it. Then, at the really high end, you have tools like Intel's VTune which let you profile your application in ways you never could with only Visual Studio. The author's gripe is pretty much that professional tools have free versions for the home tinkerer and affordable licenses for the lone professional.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
> You can always get one of these(0). I did. Sadly, they suck :(. First of all, there's a problem getting firmware that would run on Windows. Secondly, getting the pedals to simulate raw control keys is tricky (but can be done). But thirdly, the construction isn't too solid - I had them in the office for a while, and somehow someone (I suspect the cleaning crew) managed to break off one of the pedals. :/.
- 59nadir 10y ago
  I smell a market ripe for the taking... Or maybe not. With that said, I actually thought about buying one of these, but I ended up just revamping some of my Emacs bindings. Then I ended up switching to vim, so chording became less of an issue in general. (When I still found myself wanting the Emacs operating system I went with Spacemacs. It really is the best of both worlds.)

by 59nadir 10y ago

Asooka 10y ago

Visual Studio. The grand tool the author is thinking of is Visual Studio. It is light years ahead of anything vim and emacs can do, though I concede that basic text entry and editing is slightly more clunky in it. Then, at the really high end, you have tools like Intel's VTune which let you profile your application in ways you never could with only Visual Studio. The author's gripe is pretty much that professional tools have free versions for the home tinkerer and affordable licenses for the lone professional.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

> You can always get one of these(0). I did. Sadly, they suck :(. First of all, there's a problem getting firmware that would run on Windows. Secondly, getting the pedals to simulate raw control keys is tricky (but can be done). But thirdly, the construction isn't too solid - I had them in the office for a while, and somehow someone (I suspect the cleaning crew) managed to break off one of the pedals. :/.

59nadir 10y ago
I smell a market ripe for the taking... Or maybe not. With that said, I actually thought about buying one of these, but I ended up just revamping some of my Emacs bindings. Then I ended up switching to vim, so chording became less of an issue in general. (When I still found myself wanting the Emacs operating system I went with Spacemacs. It really is the best of both worlds.)