4 ms·

"More information in your face is not universally better in my humble opinion." If you're not currently interested in the information, don't look at it, and th

by cool-RR 15y ago

"More information in your face is not universally better in my humble opinion." If you're not currently interested in the information, don't look at it, and then when you might be interested in it, you can look at it. If you have big screens this is not an issue. "You have to alt-tab, locate the window, and context-switch your brain over to using a different program." Sure, but it's on about the same par as using `cd`. And if you're using a good IDE, you have to do much less window moving and have fast shortcuts for moving to exactly the right window instead of Alt-Tabbing.

adgar 15y ago
I'm on my phone, so I can't quite properly. But to your first point, if it's as easy as "don't look at it", then you're saying there's no reason to not up as much information on-screen as Possible. In the file browser how about we show inode and sector/block information for every file? Add a button for every possible action? Having too much on your screen is not solvable by "don't look at it". Suggesting otherwise flies in the face of everything we know about interface design. As to saying that changing programs being equivalent to typing "cd", I don't see how that makes any sense. When you change programs you need to remember how that program operates, it's shortcuts, its features, and so on. Does this Program autocomplete or not? What's the shortcut for "send email" again? It's a heavy context switch. "cd" is not. And since this post is advocating GUIs, that means specialized programs with guis for different tasks. Email, editing code, vcs, file manipulation, and on, and on. That's a context switch for every task and a new environment to work with.
- cool-RR 15y ago
  If you don't find the stacktrace / variable values / whatever info useful at all, then by all means don't keep it open in your IDE. I personally find it useful and helpful in solving bugs.

by cool-RR 15y ago

adgar 15y ago

I'm on my phone, so I can't quite properly. But to your first point, if it's as easy as "don't look at it", then you're saying there's no reason to not up as much information on-screen as Possible. In the file browser how about we show inode and sector/block information for every file? Add a button for every possible action? Having too much on your screen is not solvable by "don't look at it". Suggesting otherwise flies in the face of everything we know about interface design. As to saying that changing programs being equivalent to typing "cd", I don't see how that makes any sense. When you change programs you need to remember how that program operates, it's shortcuts, its features, and so on. Does this Program autocomplete or not? What's the shortcut for "send email" again? It's a heavy context switch. "cd" is not. And since this post is advocating GUIs, that means specialized programs with guis for different tasks. Email, editing code, vcs, file manipulation, and on, and on. That's a context switch for every task and a new environment to work with.

cool-RR 15y ago
If you don't find the stacktrace / variable values / whatever info useful at all, then by all means don't keep it open in your IDE. I personally find it useful and helpful in solving bugs.