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Not sure you're countering my argument at all because I of course agree we can't just blindly do things that make systems impractical to buy or use. If fact I
by WhitneyLand 8y ago
Not sure you're countering my argument at all because I of course agree we can't just blindly do things that make systems impractical to buy or use.
If fact I would certainly be all for a few basic well thought out combinations as mentioned:
>>one thing with nothing optional (or at least a very small number of combinations)
The problem is, that's not what USB-C/USB-3 whatever is. It's permutations must be in the millions at least, literally. That degree of complexity is simply not necessary to satisfy (forgot 80/20) 99% of users. The 1% (like people here) as usual would have more specialized/flexible/technically oriented options.
It's not comparable to counting number of buses or standards. It's more about the sum total of complexity and confusion within a generation of an ecosystem. Especially when manufactures could have better profits and simplify the equation quite a bit by taking looking at things longer term and as an ecosystem.
It's ironic that often the "savings" you mention individual manufacturers are trying to achieve is a false dichotomy, which becomes visible only when they are willing to take a step back and look at things more holistically.
Often what appears to be only benefiting another company...well you know, the old rising tide lifting all boats thing and so forth and so on...
- johncolanduoni 8y agoWhat are the degrees of freedom in the spec that are resulting in millions of permutations of optional features?
- rhn_mk1 8y agoNot millions, but: - Power Delivery supports some 5 different maximum values - 3 different Battery Charging modes - 5 alternate modes according to Wikipedia (C only) - >10 different plugs (not an independent variable though) - 6 different signalling rates All of those are baked in in the hardware layer. It gets worse when you realize that cables have to support the right combination. It gets even worse when including things that piggyback on USB, like dual-purpose HDMI and USB ports, Thunderbolt, noncompliant chargers (Apple), Quick Charge, audio alternate mode.
- WhitneyLand 8y agoIn addition to what RHN said, you've got to count absence of some of those features as another combination so you've got whatever power limits there are and also no power. You've also got cable lengths which I don't believe are limited by the spec but technologically limited. For example you can by 10 foot cables on Amazon but I believe it's currently impossible to buy any 10 foot cable there that has all the features supported that the spec allows for. Effectively this adds just as much complexity as something formally defined as a feature because end users have to deal with the additional variables just the same. I'm really trying to avoid doing enough research and combinatorics that would allow for an exact number but look, we're already at thousands which is ridiculous and you know how quickly the numbers grow with only a handful of additional headaches added in. We're also not counting edge cases like Apples Adapters that are supposed to allow an iOS device to charge while using USB accessories. That's another niche batch of secrets introduced with the 2018 iPad Pros. It only charges using certain combinations not simple requirements like having enough power.