Nora, Tech Witch
i understand that people don't like it when people defend software like screen or vim or emacs or excel or whatever but like
there are two paradigms of teaching users how to use software
one is to make a self-consistent interface and document it extremely thoroughly and surface that documentation to the user immediately
the other is to just drop them on the beach with a few signposts and abandon them to fuck around
the problem is that the second way is really common and totally fucks users over
Nora, Tech Witch
and people talk a lot of shit about how "open source software isn't user friendly" and like... there _are_ real problems with the way people (don't) talk about UX in foss projects
but "the interface is not instantly familiar to me" is not that problem because that's not a goal you can ever reach for more than a tiny tiny group of people
see, e.g., the simple lack of a back button in iOS / reliance on implicit "back" actions in Android flummoxing users switching/using other peoples' phones
Nora, Tech Witch
and honestly i /do/ think vim is a good example of this: if you open it (without specifying a file) it tells you the basic commands you need to know, including how to quit, and points you towards the comprehensive documentation
in fact the whole concept of having a unified software manual system on a machine is a /really good idea/ and it's unfortunate that a universal standard like man for gui programs doesn't exist
but that is inherently counterproductive if you want to exploit your users
Nora, Tech Witch
and i don't just say this out of "oh people who don't use the command line are ~~scrubs~~ who don't understand how ~~real~~ computers work"
people have been systematically denied access to the knowledge that would let them use the expensive and miraculous computing devices they have to the fullest extent possible
this is a /choice/ that software developers continue to make and we have to /stop/
management will not approve and frankly they can fuck off. budget time for an /actual manual/
Nora, Tech Witch
yes i mean manuals for mobile apps, yes i mean manuals for your webapp
the big thing here is:
- if your software /doesn't/ need a manual, it's not software, it's a document.
- if your software does real computational work that justifies its existence as software, it requires a manual.
Nora, Tech Witch
there is a reason that old command line FOSS is the only place we really see any of this, even a little bit, and that's because it's the only place where large-scale software gets developed and maintained over the long term with no profit motive
nobody is selling vim, they're just using it
and they want it to be /good/
Chris
Nora, Tech Witch
@brainblasted I'm glad! And, thank _you_, for being a software developer who like, cares :)
Chris
@tindall no prob :) Is it okay if I link to this thread on my tracking issue?
Chris
@tindall created: https://gitlab.gnome.org/BrainBlasted/Social/issues/16
Nora, Tech Witch
@brainblasted Heck yeah! Once I'm done with GSoC I'll help out for sure :)
Federico Mena Quintero
@tindall Waaaaay back in the day, I really appreciated software like Turbo Pascal 6 or Corel Draw 3 where hitting F1 anywhere brought up context-sensitive help. *ANYWHERE*, and it took you to the help page for *exactly* the place in the program you were in at that time.
There was even small tutorials for little workflows in the contextual help. It was wonderful.
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