On Sat, Feb 18, 2023 at 4:09 AM Tim via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 2023-02-17 at 16:51 -0800, ToddAndMargo via users wrote: > > It is the better part of wisdom to realize when > > computers are not the proper tool for the job. > > > > I hope this catches up to the cloud soon. Somethings > > are great on the cloud; others are better on the > > edge. And I am seeing a lot of the "are not" going > > to the cloud anyway. > [...] > I never got into modern GUI system programming. The notion of having > to frankenstein your program from a plethora of other people's > libraries, with unknown problems, unfixable problems, inadequate > information, and an ever-changing landscape of libraries and OS was > more than I was willing to get involved in. Yes. A lot of software follows the same practices as the automobile industry -- adding tailfins and other "features" to keep people buying new versions when the old version did the job. Many people seem to enjoy twiddling with new interfaces to figure how they work when the older interface provided nearly all the necessary functionality (and both old and new interfaces neglecting needs of users with disabilities). Software is all that and worse due to the ongoing lack of remedies for reliance by huge software stacks on a library developed by one person ( https://xkcd.com/2347/). Todays case in point: https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/16/google_delays_certificate_transparency_log/ There are useful innovations in all fields, but most people can't sort of the useful from the useless, and the best innovations are often made by small groups that don't have name recognition. Sandy Munro has a good insights, based on years working in the industry, into these issues for the automobile industry -- we need people who can do the same for software. One of Sandy's current complaints is the auto EV makers who use an array of 3rd party controller models, each requiring a case, power, and data cables, instead of putting all the functions in one module. All those added cables and connectors are potential failure points and added cost for every vehicle sold. In the linux world, with X11 provided users could work in a terminal and start the GUI from the command line, but over the years, features were added using libraries of varying quality and complicating the interfaces. Wayland et al addressed many of the shortcomings, but was tied to efforts that appear to be aimed at providing a GUI that would be familiar to users whose only experience with computers was with smartphones. My field (ocean remote sensing) revolves around geolocated images. The NetCDF4-CF file format was developed with inputs from diverse communities, and is used for much of data I encounter. Many users, however, rely on internet searches to "learn" that they need geoTIFF files. Unfortunately, geoTIFF lacks the comprehensive metadata support you can get using NetCDF4-CF files. When I provide files to users who insist on geoTIFF files, I need to translate the NetCDF4-CF metadata into text documents, and the end user has to figure out how to enter the information into their GIS package. I find I'm getting sucked into using Windows, macOS, and Wayland on linux because that is what colleagues in large enterprises are using. Certainly in my former work, IT was build around a call-center model with no regard for the impacts on actual workflows. -- George N. White III
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