3 ms·

End user programming is simply not compatible with the commercial nature of computing, and therefore -- despite very interesting early examples -- it never took

by scroot 2y ago

End user programming is simply not compatible with the commercial nature of computing, and therefore -- despite very interesting early examples -- it never took off. Now the public have been inculcated into a concept of "what computing is" that is almost entirely on the consumption side. Not sure how we get back from that.

zzo38computer 2y ago
There are some things that can be done, although it will only help in the cases where such a thing is actually used, which is not always. The computers can be designed that you can write programs easily (instead of hiding them behind several layers of menus), and design the formats that can be queried and affected by such programs. Services can be made which support such things. The user interface system can be made to easily interact with other programs so that e.g. you can easily interact command-line interface with GUI (something that most existing systems are not very good at). (You may know about Nushell (which allows command-line shell to be used with structured data; PowerShell does something similar). It is a reasonable idea, and some similar ideas can be used with interaction of data, although there are some problems with it, including that it is not what the operating system was designed to use. This is why I think to design a new operating system which allow to make it much better (in my opinion).) Furthermore, it must be designed to work efficiently and to avoid unnecessarily requiring internet connections, and to avoid wasting so much disk space, energy, etc. FOSS will also help, especially if the programs are not too difficult to modify. A better way to work security than existing mechanisms would also be an improvement; so the user can easily define the security features and specify the source/destination of all I/O, which may also be proxies which are other programs (which might be written by the end user). (I have some ideas about designing operating systems like many of the things above, although that will not affect many things that don't use it; however, it is a start, and some people may write interfaces with a few other services and programs to support such a thing.) (Dishonest business practices should also be avoided, although that is really a separate issue, but that will help this one too.)

by scroot 2y ago

zzo38computer 2y ago

There are some things that can be done, although it will only help in the cases where such a thing is actually used, which is not always. The computers can be designed that you can write programs easily (instead of hiding them behind several layers of menus), and design the formats that can be queried and affected by such programs. Services can be made which support such things. The user interface system can be made to easily interact with other programs so that e.g. you can easily interact command-line interface with GUI (something that most existing systems are not very good at). (You may know about Nushell (which allows command-line shell to be used with structured data; PowerShell does something similar). It is a reasonable idea, and some similar ideas can be used with interaction of data, although there are some problems with it, including that it is not what the operating system was designed to use. This is why I think to design a new operating system which allow to make it much better (in my opinion).) Furthermore, it must be designed to work efficiently and to avoid unnecessarily requiring internet connections, and to avoid wasting so much disk space, energy, etc. FOSS will also help, especially if the programs are not too difficult to modify. A better way to work security than existing mechanisms would also be an improvement; so the user can easily define the security features and specify the source/destination of all I/O, which may also be proxies which are other programs (which might be written by the end user). (I have some ideas about designing operating systems like many of the things above, although that will not affect many things that don't use it; however, it is a start, and some people may write interfaces with a few other services and programs to support such a thing.) (Dishonest business practices should also be avoided, although that is really a separate issue, but that will help this one too.)