Notices by Nora, Tech Witch (tindall@cybre.space), page 5

@brainblasted I'm glad! And, thank _you_, for being a software developer who like, cares :)

i have very strong feelings about how software should be developed but that doesn't and must not translate into shitting on users for what tools they use to get shit done

i guess i should make it clear also that like

it is _not_ acceptable to tell anyone that the software they use is bad if they don't ask

in the same way that you wouldn't just walk up to someone building a house and say "oh that hammer is awful, you should use [other hammer]"

the exceptions, obviously, being if:

- that hammer is dangerous (in which case, regulate against it, don't give unsolicited advice)

- the person using the hammer asks you for advice (so go ahead)

@temporal the sad thing is that we actually /had/ this for GUI software, too, for both Mac OS and Windows XP, and nobody used it and it withered and died

and they removed it in Windows 8 and i think in El Capitan

@lynnesbian if yr talking about my thread i promise i'm not like, unhappy that you don't like vim

/i/ don't really like vim that much even though i use it, and i don't recommend it to people

i'm unhappy that people miss the point of talking about why they _do_ like vim/screen/etc and don't make the points that actually matter

i'm sorry that i didn't make that clear

(edit s/if/that/g because i should take responsibility for my shit)

@lynnesbian if yr talking about my thread i promise i'm not like, unhappy that you don't like vim

/i/ don't really like vim that much even though i use it, and i don't recommend it to people

i'm unhappy that people miss the point of talking about why they _do_ like vim/screen/etc and don't make the points that actually matter

i'm sorry if i didn't make that clear

i'll say this again so i can pin it:

if your software doesn't require a manual, it isn't software, and could be a regular document

if your software does real computational work that justifies its existence, it requires a manual

document. your. software.

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/

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.

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/

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

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

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

@lynnesbian @wxcafe (that is to say, Vim has a really really good manual while Photoshop does not)

@lynnesbian @wxcafe i think both things can be true at the same time

on the one hand Vim has a really really good manual and follows consistent conventions & metaphors

on the other hand we've all been taught a lot of _other_ conventions by our experiences with the GUI software we have to interact with during the day to day

so while it is probably true that you couldn't find a person on fedi or Twitter for whom Photoshop takes longer to learn than Vim that's not true if you include non-computer-users

it doesn't matter how """intuitive""" your software is if you don't include a fucking manual

with """agile""" software development where you require that users always have the latest version, and every version changes the interface and behavior, this is impossible

this is why most software is complete garbage

does anyone know what the linux support on the ThinkPad T495 is like

@sophistoche that instance is pretty much known to be a gab plant so that they can claim that not all gab users are far right