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I’m not sure I buy the argument that tools necessarily need to be fixed. > It feels like we created these tools when software became a thing. Then, we forgot t

I’m not sure I buy the argument that tools necessarily need to be fixed. > It feels like we created these tools when software became a thing. Then, we forgot them. Sometimes the best tool is the hammer you already have. A lowly, simple, reliable hammer. I know software isn’t the only field where we like to chase the new shiny thing and call it “modern”. But, sometimes it really seems like that feeling is deeply embedded in programmer culture. I’m not against building new tools, but they have to solve legitimate problems. And an old GUI from the 90s doesn’t seem like a legitimate problem for me. Have you ever seen how quickly a trained worker can move around on a TUI from the 80s? Scaling? Data interoperability? Data models and new use cases? This is not an exhaustive list, but these all seem like good reasons to revamp tools. But, if the problem is attaching one piece of wood to another with a bit of metal… just use the hammer.

nineteen999 2y ago
I dunno .. a lot of the medical software like the one referred to in the software really were (are?) written on a shoestring budget by crap programmers. The last one I set up in the 90's used a MS Jet database backend on a CIFS networked drive ... as you can imagine, with more than one or two clients the thing was constantly freezing up due to CIFS clients issuing oplock breaks etc. trying to get exclusive access to the Jet database.
abrookewood 2y ago
"how quickly a trained worker can move around on a TUI from the 80s". I worked at Ticketek many, many years ago and witnessed the move from dumb terminals running a TUI, to a new browser based system. The old timers were seriously pissed and I could totally understand why. You could navigate the old TUI entirely via a keyboard and they had memorised all of the shortcuts: want to buy a ticket to the latest show? That's 6 key presses. These people could smash out the sales at a phenomenal rate. The new app was browser-based, looked really pretty and basically forced you to use the mouse. I think we lost most of the TUI-guns, but the replacement staff were cheap and the training was simple. Not sure if it was an economic success, but that's progress.

nineteen999 2y ago

I dunno .. a lot of the medical software like the one referred to in the software really were (are?) written on a shoestring budget by crap programmers. The last one I set up in the 90's used a MS Jet database backend on a CIFS networked drive ... as you can imagine, with more than one or two clients the thing was constantly freezing up due to CIFS clients issuing oplock breaks etc. trying to get exclusive access to the Jet database.

abrookewood 2y ago

"how quickly a trained worker can move around on a TUI from the 80s". I worked at Ticketek many, many years ago and witnessed the move from dumb terminals running a TUI, to a new browser based system. The old timers were seriously pissed and I could totally understand why. You could navigate the old TUI entirely via a keyboard and they had memorised all of the shortcuts: want to buy a ticket to the latest show? That's 6 key presses. These people could smash out the sales at a phenomenal rate. The new app was browser-based, looked really pretty and basically forced you to use the mouse. I think we lost most of the TUI-guns, but the replacement staff were cheap and the training was simple. Not sure if it was an economic success, but that's progress.