5 ms·
It's proof positive that there exists a generation of devs who have never seen a physical user interface made of buttons, knobs, or sliders. E for effort.
by surfingdino 2y ago
It's proof positive that there exists a generation of devs who have never seen a physical user interface made of buttons, knobs, or sliders. E for effort.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI literally did a double take reading this. The very possibility that an adult in the world has never interacted with analog controls on anything more complex than a toaster trips me out a bit. Like, how in the hell has software driven UI (with all of the problems that entails) managed to take over? Why must literally everything suck?
- mjburgess 2y agoIt's just vastly cheaper unfortunately. Manufacturing buttons requires investing in moulds, etc. and then iterating on a design is very expensive.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoIs it really? Touchscreens and the tech stack to drive them aren't exactly simplistic. A handful of simple switches and a few rheostats seems like it'd be cheaper if for no other reason they don't invoke the avalanche of dumb shit that kicks off whenever software is brought into a project.
- Gare 2y agoLabor also isn't getting cheaper, and someone has to assemble and test all those switches. You can automate... but LCD touchscreen is simpler.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI strongly doubt mass produced commodity components like switches are hand assembled or individually tested. It's typical for random samples, say one in a thousand, to be pulled from a batch for testing.
- baobabKoodaa 2y agoIf you are asking which of these things is more likely: A) The developer chose a touch screen to make the build easier and cheaper B) The developer has never seen physical buttons The answer is A)
- stavros 2y agoYou think it's faster to get a bunch of switches and rheostats, CAD components so that they fit together while looking like a Winamp skin that looks like a physical device, get them manufactured, test them, do the above five more times to get everything perfect, sand/paint the components to get the specific look, and wire them all up than to throw some CSS lines and HTML elements on a screen?
- bongodongobob 2y agoHonestly since I don't do UI, yes. I also think it's a little weird to think that is particularly difficult. It's really not.
- stavros 2y agoI didn't say "difficult", I said "faster". I do both, and CSS is an order of magnitude faster, maybe more.
- bongodongobob 2y agoOk but most of the things you listed don't need to be done. You don't need CAD or custom manufactured parts. Just some model paint. If you want to get nitty gritty about it you left out language support, accessibility, unit tests, version control, and documentation out of the UI portion.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago1) Economies of scale. One touchscreen factory replaces arbitrary number of switches and sliders and buttons of all shape and size. 2) Who says anything about touchscreens? Most touch interfaces your interact with aren't displays - they're capacitive buttons. Think your induction stove, or a powerbank, or any other random device you have to touch just right to turn on. Capacitive buttons are dumb pieces of solid-state electronics. Zero moving parts. Zero things to break (except maybe status LED that shines through them so you know where to touch). Cheap as dirt. The future sucks because it wasn't created for improved quality or functionality - it was created because it was cheaper than the old-school way before it.
- surfingdino 2y agoBecause slapping a touchscreen or an OLED gets you out of the inconvenience of making stuff repairable. "Just chuck it out" because it's impossible to actually repair a touch screen is way more convenient and cheaper for the manufacturer to do than making their products repairable. Look at the modern disposable camera lenses. Even the most expensive ones have no manual controls, but are full of motors and displays making them way less future proof and actually unrepairable.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoTempus fugit. I still get taken aback when someone reminds me 1990s weren't 10 years ago. There's a whole generation of adults now, who grew up with touchscreens. Original iPhone release date isn't perhaps the best milestone here, but arguably the most well known one, and it happened - I can't really believe what I'm writing - 16 years ago. So yes, it's totally possible for someone doing tech today to have never interacted with complex analog interfaces since being a little kid. Still unlikely for the next couple years, but possible.
- oopsallmagic 2y ago[flagged]
- oopsallmagic 2y agoHow is it not blindingly obvious yet? It's money. Everything sucks because you aren't an executive or a shareholder. Everything sucks because everything isn't for you, it's to extract money from you. And places like this are the Mos Eisley cantina where everyone talks about the best way to do that.
- amne 2y agoI was so disappointed as well when I saw he just grabbed a screen and called it a day. I was really expecting some mechanical tricks around the play/pause buttons liked I had on my old cassette player to make them xor-like .. so disappointed. And frustrated I just don't have the skills or time to make one but would love to see someone actually do it.
- pjc50 2y agoSince this is like ten of the top ten comments here, complaining that it's not physical, I'd like to point out that physical controls are expensive. Slide pots are about a dollar: https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/bourns-inc/PTA2043-2015CPB103/3781176 https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/bourns-inc/PTA2... ; if you want a motorized one, that's way more. Pushbuttons are similar. The XOR system is literally "radio buttons" or "ganged switches", but I can no longer find that exact item on catalogues. It works by having a bar hooked around all the switches so that when one is halfway-pressed it triggers the unlock across all switches, so the unused one pops out. Then you need to hook all that up to your microcontroller as inputs, do panel cutouts, etc. The switches tend to be through-hole, complicating manufacturing. Then you discover that you end up needing two boards, one full of inputs and display parts which are through-hole so there isn't space on the back for the actual MCU.
- Dalewyn 2y ago>I'd like to point out that physical controls are expensive. Do you guys not have money?
- ffsm8 2y agoNot enough, no. I can provide you with a PayPal username of you wanna get rid of some 8-)
- stavros 2y agoThis will cost $15 in materials for seven buttons, two sliders, and two screens. The "they're expensive!" argument makes sense when you're making a mass-produced item, but for a one-off art piece, $15 won't break the bank.
- Latty 2y agoA massive overstatement. Even ignoring everything else, cars may have started down the touchscreen route (which is insane for anything the driver is using), but that is recent and not universal still. I can't believe there is a professional dev today that hasn't seen a few cars with physical user interfaces.
- hbbio 2y agoSomeone has a (3d render?) better concept indeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGCihgndng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGCihgndng (the original page is now 404)
- swah 2y agoI was thinking it would be this one!
- imiric 2y agoThat looks amazing! I wonder what happens if you press the EQ or PL buttons. :)
- netsharc 2y agoThe whole front facade needs to rotate like James Bond's license plate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QXCWW--DlY&t=45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QXCWW--DlY&t=45
- rusk 2y agoNaw a whole nother panel that has to pop out on a swing boom like transformers - complete with an array of luminous self motivated sliders and a dropdown for presets that pops out like an actual oled panel for the list of presets that pops back in again once you make your selection!
- fy20 2y agoWhat hardware do you need to make the slider? Other than that and finding displays of the correct dimensions, with a 3D printer it should be pretty simple to make.
- surfingdino 2y agoMotorised faders have been available for decades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPXeULcDa5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPXeULcDa5w
- thih9 2y agoPerhaps the developer wanted to support skins this way. /s