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I think the idea that programming is a back-room industrial or maintenance operation performed by specialists misses the point that programming is also another

I think the idea that programming is a back-room industrial or maintenance operation performed by specialists misses the point that programming is also another way to use your computer. The most fluid and limitless way, in fact. Programming is not just like being a car mechanic or factory floor engineer, its like being an expert driver at the same time. When I use my desktop, it often occurs to me that I could write something to speed up a task, if only the application was accessible in a similar way to Emacs, or had Amiga-style ARexx ports that I could talk to in a script. From this perspective, programming is the most fine-grained GUI affordance within a computer system. By making it accessible along a continuum with simpler GUI tools, we greatly increase the ability of the user to do magic, or to learn to do it. I would really like to see the development of an ergonomic expert-oriented desktop that lets me use my programming skills in a high-level and bureaucracy-free manner, to augment my use of an attractive and well-integrated GUI. There's no reason why such features should impinge on ordinary non-programmer use.

egypturnash 6y ago
Get a Mac. Macs have AppleScript, and while application support can be hit-or-miss, I’ve got several little things I’ve done with it that have made my life a lot easier. There’s a couple features I wanted in Illustrator that I’ve been able to work around with scripts, I have a script hanging around to help with a tedious part of turning a big pile of individual page files into a comic, I have a hotkey that rotates my display and my Wacom tablet with one keystroke when I want to work with my monitor in portrait orientation for a while, and a few other things I’m not thinking of. Some of these I use once every few years, some I use multiple times a day.
- Siira 6y ago
  Note: Applescript is mostly abandoned since some years ago, and most apps don't support it in very useful ways in my experience. It's also slow. I imagine Linux would allow more scriptization, but I only ever use Linux for my servers.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
> I think the idea that programming is a back-room industrial or maintenance operation performed by specialists misses the point that programming is also another way to use your computer. Arguably, programming is what computers are for. If you're not programming it in some way, then it is more like an appliance that just happens to contain a computer. Personal computers of the 80s booted directly into a programming environment.
richardjdare 6y ago
Thinking about it some more, I'd like a desktop OS that not only provides extensive scripting, but also exposes system features to the language in an accessible manner. So I can easily write a GUI for my script in a few lines, or draw some crap on screen, out of the box without the bureaucracy or FFI business you'd need to do these things in Python or some other high level language. In other words I'd like there to be a concept of OS-level "system features" available to high level languages through something a little more friendly and robust than interfacing to a C library. I don't know how I'd implement it :) but its how I'd like things to be.
- reirob 6y ago
  Something like a Smalltalk system ;)

egypturnash 6y ago

Get a Mac. Macs have AppleScript, and while application support can be hit-or-miss, I’ve got several little things I’ve done with it that have made my life a lot easier. There’s a couple features I wanted in Illustrator that I’ve been able to work around with scripts, I have a script hanging around to help with a tedious part of turning a big pile of individual page files into a comic, I have a hotkey that rotates my display and my Wacom tablet with one keystroke when I want to work with my monitor in portrait orientation for a while, and a few other things I’m not thinking of. Some of these I use once every few years, some I use multiple times a day.

Siira 6y ago
Note: Applescript is mostly abandoned since some years ago, and most apps don't support it in very useful ways in my experience. It's also slow. I imagine Linux would allow more scriptization, but I only ever use Linux for my servers.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

> I think the idea that programming is a back-room industrial or maintenance operation performed by specialists misses the point that programming is also another way to use your computer. Arguably, programming is what computers are for. If you're not programming it in some way, then it is more like an appliance that just happens to contain a computer. Personal computers of the 80s booted directly into a programming environment.

richardjdare 6y ago

Thinking about it some more, I'd like a desktop OS that not only provides extensive scripting, but also exposes system features to the language in an accessible manner. So I can easily write a GUI for my script in a few lines, or draw some crap on screen, out of the box without the bureaucracy or FFI business you'd need to do these things in Python or some other high level language. In other words I'd like there to be a concept of OS-level "system features" available to high level languages through something a little more friendly and robust than interfacing to a C library. I don't know how I'd implement it :) but its how I'd like things to be.

reirob 6y ago
Something like a Smalltalk system ;)