3 ms·

I’m not sure there aren’t better solutions to the unix CLI which is basically formed of a bunch of shit parsers written by idiots wired together, an operating s

I’m not sure there aren’t better solutions to the unix CLI which is basically formed of a bunch of shit parsers written by idiots wired together, an operating system pretending to be an editor and a text processing package with a footprint the size of windows. YMMV but these are also poor solutions to the problem that no one has the time, money, motivation or competence to do better. LaTeX is a daily one for me. It would be beneficial for society that someone writes a word processor from scratch that does better. I used TechWriter back in the 90s it it was better than both LaTeX and word.

kkfx 2y ago
Well, no doubt better solutions can be, but I do not know any, still waiting to see a GNU Hurd system able to boot on my real iron... Meaning yes, we might have anything much better, but the point is that most modern software tend to be much worse then the old one, even counting the old gazillion bugs and inconsistent, a significant slice of legacy baggage etc. One part well taken in older desktops are the idea of DocUIs, editable and end-user programmable, of course I'll not use today a LispM or a Xerox Alto, my EXWM still boot on modern GNU/Linux (NixOS) because I need to interact with today world, I can't live like RMS with an obsolete laptop (much a craptop even if open) etc, but still with these old tools because they outshine modern ones. I casually use R and I like some of it's aspects, since it's a casual usage while inside EXWM and living in org-mode I've chosen R-Studio for that, it's not "anything ready and perfect" but the point remain. Why the hell wasting gazillion of time to create slides if I can simply present from a zoomed org-mode buffer? Why wasting my life with a spreadsheet if I can do the same with few SLoC in an org-babel block or in R Studio UI? Why became sick formatting docs with an office automation package when I can export/write directly LaTeX and change pretty anything without re-touching my text?

kkfx 2y ago

Well, no doubt better solutions can be, but I do not know any, still waiting to see a GNU Hurd system able to boot on my real iron... Meaning yes, we might have anything much better, but the point is that most modern software tend to be much worse then the old one, even counting the old gazillion bugs and inconsistent, a significant slice of legacy baggage etc. One part well taken in older desktops are the idea of DocUIs, editable and end-user programmable, of course I'll not use today a LispM or a Xerox Alto, my EXWM still boot on modern GNU/Linux (NixOS) because I need to interact with today world, I can't live like RMS with an obsolete laptop (much a craptop even if open) etc, but still with these old tools because they outshine modern ones. I casually use R and I like some of it's aspects, since it's a casual usage while inside EXWM and living in org-mode I've chosen R-Studio for that, it's not "anything ready and perfect" but the point remain. Why the hell wasting gazillion of time to create slides if I can simply present from a zoomed org-mode buffer? Why wasting my life with a spreadsheet if I can do the same with few SLoC in an org-babel block or in R Studio UI? Why became sick formatting docs with an office automation package when I can export/write directly LaTeX and change pretty anything without re-touching my text?