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This is an interesting analogy. > Bikes use far fewer resources to accomplish the same thing Bikes use a lot more time, which is a pretty important resource t

This is an interesting analogy. > Bikes use far fewer resources to accomplish the same thing Bikes use a lot more time, which is a pretty important resource to most people. When I drive, that's usually why. So, are the additional features that Atom provides "driving saves significant time" variety or only "driving allows you to listen to the radio" variety? If the former, it might be worth the occasional freeze or slow down. > If I used those charts to convince people to start biking, I doubt I'd be very successful. I think if people actually didn't know that cars used more resources, the charts could have an impact on behavior. The fact that it's obvious (especially financially) means people already carpool or even (in cities) don't own a car at all. I don't think it's as obvious to some people that not every editor uses this much RAM, and you don't need another laptop upgrade, you can just switch to another editor. > I couldn't care less... because it has practically zero impact on the environment or anyone other than yourself I think you're right, but I'm not totally sure. If enough users refuse to use unreasonably resource-intensive software, then more effort will be spent on keeping most software efficient. We still seem to have plenty of options, but I'd rather try to convince others to use efficient software than eventually have to continually upgrade my hardware to keep up.

primitivesuave 9y ago
This is an interesting response! For the first point, I'd say it's less about time as it is about ease-of-use. I still use Vim when I'm SSH'd somewhere or the common occasions where I just need to change one line of a file. The process of "vi", entering the editor, using the shortcuts to find, edit, replace, save the file is done before an editor even loads. Time is valuable and not using Vim in some situations is like choosing a hand saw over a power tool (my analogy game is on point today). On the last one about encouraging less resource-intensive software, I completely agree with you, and think software has grown increasingly careless toward memory usage. Unfortunately I'd estimate that less than 10% of computer users have ever opened the Activity Monitor on their mac or know which particular app is slowing it down. For developers I'm sure that's closer to 100%, so tools like Xcode/Atom/Eclipse will have their usage scrutinized more, but I certainly haven't seen anything close to mass rejection over it - we accept the free benefits and pay for it with better hardware. I also think the benefits of the underlying Electron library being seamless across platforms, plus the added benefit of extensions being as easy to write as a webpage, makes it a good trade-off for memory. I really don't mean to minimize or refute any point you just made, what you wrote makes a lot of sense and really got me thinking. Maybe car vs bike should be the analogy for a more convincing blog post ;)

primitivesuave 9y ago

This is an interesting response! For the first point, I'd say it's less about time as it is about ease-of-use. I still use Vim when I'm SSH'd somewhere or the common occasions where I just need to change one line of a file. The process of "vi", entering the editor, using the shortcuts to find, edit, replace, save the file is done before an editor even loads. Time is valuable and not using Vim in some situations is like choosing a hand saw over a power tool (my analogy game is on point today). On the last one about encouraging less resource-intensive software, I completely agree with you, and think software has grown increasingly careless toward memory usage. Unfortunately I'd estimate that less than 10% of computer users have ever opened the Activity Monitor on their mac or know which particular app is slowing it down. For developers I'm sure that's closer to 100%, so tools like Xcode/Atom/Eclipse will have their usage scrutinized more, but I certainly haven't seen anything close to mass rejection over it - we accept the free benefits and pay for it with better hardware. I also think the benefits of the underlying Electron library being seamless across platforms, plus the added benefit of extensions being as easy to write as a webpage, makes it a good trade-off for memory. I really don't mean to minimize or refute any point you just made, what you wrote makes a lot of sense and really got me thinking. Maybe car vs bike should be the analogy for a more convincing blog post ;)