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Echoes of Alan Kay's recent comment on how software devs are way too concerned with the how the computer works to the detriment of what the software is supposed

Echoes of Alan Kay's recent comment on how software devs are way too concerned with the how the computer works to the detriment of what the software is supposed to do.

emteycz 5y ago
The battle is fought over performance and size, I think that's exactly what the user wants.
- vips7L 5y ago
  I don’t think the typical user cares about size.
  - oblib 5y ago
    I agree. In over 20 years I've never had a single user ask or complain about the size of the app. They have let me know when there was something not working right though.
    - 1marc 5y ago
      People definitely notice speed and performance. They won’t complain about it generally, sure… but there’s plenty of data and case studies on the fact that users care https://nitropack.io/blog/post/web-performance-matters-case-studies https://nitropack.io/blog/post/web-performance-matters-case-...
      - ramesh31 5y ago
        >People definitely notice speed and performance. There's sort of a "Maslow's Hierarchy of User Needs" that exists in software though. So long as the user can do something, and their immediate needs are met, performance concerns are just a small annoyance. And generally they will continue to ask for more features rather than performance improvements as long as the app remains usable.
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Well then you've never seen poor people uninstalling apps from their cheap smartphones because they need to install and use a different one ;-) that you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there
ramesh31 5y ago
Yup. The reality is that programmer time is far far more expensive than compute time. And as long as that's the case, increasing levels of abstraction are our only hope at building complex software.
- kbelder 5y ago
  Programmer time is more important than their computer time, sure. Not sure that programmer time is always more expensive than the compute time of all the users of the software added up.
mbrodersen 5y ago
Yep because software devs is in the business of making money, while Alan Kay is in the business of smugly commenting from the side lines. He has very little understanding on what matters in the commercial world of software.

Echoes of Alan Kay's recent comment on how software devs are way too concerned with the how the computer works to the detriment of what the software is supposed to do.

emteycz 5y ago

The battle is fought over performance and size, I think that's exactly what the user wants.

vips7L 5y ago
I don’t think the typical user cares about size.
- oblib 5y ago
  I agree. In over 20 years I've never had a single user ask or complain about the size of the app. They have let me know when there was something not working right though.
  - 1marc 5y ago
    People definitely notice speed and performance. They won’t complain about it generally, sure… but there’s plenty of data and case studies on the fact that users care https://nitropack.io/blog/post/web-performance-matters-case-studies https://nitropack.io/blog/post/web-performance-matters-case-...
    - ramesh31 5y ago
      >People definitely notice speed and performance. There's sort of a "Maslow's Hierarchy of User Needs" that exists in software though. So long as the user can do something, and their immediate needs are met, performance concerns are just a small annoyance. And generally they will continue to ask for more features rather than performance improvements as long as the app remains usable.
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Well then you've never seen poor people uninstalling apps from their cheap smartphones because they need to install and use a different one ;-) that you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there

ramesh31 5y ago

Yup. The reality is that programmer time is far far more expensive than compute time. And as long as that's the case, increasing levels of abstraction are our only hope at building complex software.

kbelder 5y ago
Programmer time is more important than their computer time, sure. Not sure that programmer time is always more expensive than the compute time of all the users of the software added up.

mbrodersen 5y ago

Yep because software devs is in the business of making money, while Alan Kay is in the business of smugly commenting from the side lines. He has very little understanding on what matters in the commercial world of software.