3 ms·

The Alto did things that even modern computers don't do as well. There's a demo I like to point at for this: https://youtu.be/AnrlSqtpOkw https://youtu.be/AnrlS

The Alto did things that even modern computers don't do as well. There's a demo I like to point at for this: https://youtu.be/AnrlSqtpOkw https://youtu.be/AnrlSqtpOkw Look how programmable this is by the user! Today's OSes and their division of software into "applications" erect barriers to software composition that don't need to be there.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
Programmability only matters to users who can program - which is a tiny minority. There is no sense in which HN or a PhD-packed centre like PARC represents the interests of typical users, who are perfectly happy to use relatively dumb information appliances that can only be customised with ready made applications controlled through some vaguely graphical UI/OS. PARC's real legacy was the creation of a workable model for non-expert UIs. The Smalltalk/LISP angle was never going to be more than incidental. I'm personally a huge fan of it. But it's completely opaque to a typical user and always will be. AI promises to be at least as transformative because it won't be long - more than five, less than ten years - before it allows complex customised context-aware task-oriented voice commands that aren't mired in the thousands of random switches, file location inconsistencies, and other dinosaur bullshit of the UNIX command line.
- ryukafalz 4y ago
  "Can program" is a spectrum, not a binary. It depends not only on the user's skill, but on the environment they're working in. Introduce kids to Scratch and they will program. Have someone use Excel and they will program, though they won't say that's what they're doing! > I'm personally a huge fan of it. But it's completely opaque to a typical user and always will be. I don't think we can say this with any certainty. Most people have never had an environment like this available to them.

3 ms·

The Alto did things that even modern computers don't do as well. There's a demo I like to point at for this: https://youtu.be/AnrlSqtpOkw https://youtu.be/AnrlS

by ryukafalz 4y ago

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
Programmability only matters to users who can program - which is a tiny minority. There is no sense in which HN or a PhD-packed centre like PARC represents the interests of typical users, who are perfectly happy to use relatively dumb information appliances that can only be customised with ready made applications controlled through some vaguely graphical UI/OS. PARC's real legacy was the creation of a workable model for non-expert UIs. The Smalltalk/LISP angle was never going to be more than incidental. I'm personally a huge fan of it. But it's completely opaque to a typical user and always will be. AI promises to be at least as transformative because it won't be long - more than five, less than ten years - before it allows complex customised context-aware task-oriented voice commands that aren't mired in the thousands of random switches, file location inconsistencies, and other dinosaur bullshit of the UNIX command line.
- ryukafalz 4y ago
  "Can program" is a spectrum, not a binary. It depends not only on the user's skill, but on the environment they're working in. Introduce kids to Scratch and they will program. Have someone use Excel and they will program, though they won't say that's what they're doing! > I'm personally a huge fan of it. But it's completely opaque to a typical user and always will be. I don't think we can say this with any certainty. Most people have never had an environment like this available to them.