[FRIAM] Poll: Why is computing not fun any more? How can we bring the fun back?

[Owen Densmore]

[From a Friam chat today with Dave and Roger amongst others... We'd
like to have your opinions.]

Many will not agree, but it seems to me that programming and
computing is no where near as fun as it once was. The Apple II was
more fun than computers today. Woz's Basic had thrills hidden
inside. The Windows vs Mac vs Linux is a pain and not a joy. Java
is complete but way too difficult. Python is nice but their stupid
version wars and library wars leave users in limbo. The "agile"
languages are cool but have 1/100th or worse the performance of C/C++/
Java and have no window systems thus depend on "web" UIs or weird
things like wxWindows and other ad-hockery. Vendors don't care about
their customers and create havoc in terms of interoperability.

The XO seems to be getting at the heart of the matter: building a
system so innovative that it overcomes the drudgery .. but note that
idiots are trying to port Windows to the XO! Maybe the gPhone/
Android may make phones fun. But then the iPhone proves Apple is
evil as we knew they were by their horrid locked and ATT monopoly.
DRM makes media difficult to use and stifles creativity.

So the questions are:
- Are you having fun?
- What exactly do you think is the problem?
- What would make computing fun and innovative again for you?

-- Owen

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Post by Owen Densmore
Many will not agree, but it seems to me that programming and
computing is no where near as fun as it once was.

To do something new takes more imagination and work than it did in 10 or
20 years ago. No one is going to hack on a Turbo Pascal when there's
Visual Studio and Eclipse. Writing an word processor is pointless when
there is Office 12. Even small progress on such applications seems to
take millions of dollars.

These days, the satisfaction of mastery is harder to come by, because it
is so much harder to grok a large software system, than it is, say, the
ROM of an Apple //. Way back when, even if the design of a program was
odd, it was possible to really understand it all. Now, with dozens or
hundreds of programmers working on commodity software (and obvious,
frankly boring objectives), there is plenty of `who cares' code. Code
that was not written by or for clever people, nor really expected to
endure. Who wants to study such code? It's just a pain.

To enjoy invention, I think it's necessary to acknowledge and invest in
it. Just as historical buildings are maintained and used, we should do
the same with software. One venue where this does happen is with
Linux-based distributions, which of course include software that dates
back decades (e.g. X11, GCC, Emacs, Perl).

Marcus

[Owen Densmore]

[From a Friam chat today with Dave and Roger amongst others... We'd
like to have your opinions.]

Many will not agree, but it seems to me that programming and
computing is no where near as fun as it once was. The Apple II was
more fun than computers today. Woz's Basic had thrills hidden
inside. The Windows vs Mac vs Linux is a pain and not a joy. Java
is complete but way too difficult. Python is nice but their stupid
version wars and library wars leave users in limbo. The "agile"
languages are cool but have 1/100th or worse the performance of C/C++/
Java and have no window systems thus depend on "web" UIs or weird
things like wxWindows and other ad-hockery. Vendors don't care about
their customers and create havoc in terms of interoperability.

The XO seems to be getting at the heart of the matter: building a
system so innovative that it overcomes the drudgery .. but note that
idiots are trying to port Windows to the XO! Maybe the gPhone/
Android may make phones fun. But then the iPhone proves Apple is
evil as we knew they were by their horrid locked and ATT monopoly.
DRM makes media difficult to use and stifles creativity.

So the questions are:
- Are you having fun?
- What exactly do you think is the problem?
- What would make computing fun and innovative again for you?

-- Owen

[Owen Densmore]

[From a Friam chat today with Dave and Roger amongst others... We'd
like to have your opinions.]

Many will not agree, but it seems to me that programming and
computing is no where near as fun as it once was. The Apple II was
more fun than computers today. Woz's Basic had thrills hidden
inside. The Windows vs Mac vs Linux is a pain and not a joy. Java
is complete but way too difficult. Python is nice but their stupid
version wars and library wars leave users in limbo. The "agile"
languages are cool but have 1/100th or worse the performance of C/C++/
Java and have no window systems thus depend on "web" UIs or weird
things like wxWindows and other ad-hockery. Vendors don't care about
their customers and create havoc in terms of interoperability.

The XO seems to be getting at the heart of the matter: building a
system so innovative that it overcomes the drudgery .. but note that
idiots are trying to port Windows to the XO! Maybe the gPhone/
Android may make phones fun. But then the iPhone proves Apple is
evil as we knew they were by their horrid locked and ATT monopoly.
DRM makes media difficult to use and stifles creativity.

So the questions are:
- Are you having fun?
- What exactly do you think is the problem?
- What would make computing fun and innovative again for you?

-- Owen

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Post by Owen Densmore
Many will not agree, but it seems to me that programming and
computing is no where near as fun as it once was.

To do something new takes more imagination and work than it did in 10 or
20 years ago. No one is going to hack on a Turbo Pascal when there's
Visual Studio and Eclipse. Writing an word processor is pointless when
there is Office 12. Even small progress on such applications seems to
take millions of dollars.

These days, the satisfaction of mastery is harder to come by, because it
is so much harder to grok a large software system, than it is, say, the
ROM of an Apple //. Way back when, even if the design of a program was
odd, it was possible to really understand it all. Now, with dozens or
hundreds of programmers working on commodity software (and obvious,
frankly boring objectives), there is plenty of `who cares' code. Code
that was not written by or for clever people, nor really expected to
endure. Who wants to study such code? It's just a pain.

To enjoy invention, I think it's necessary to acknowledge and invest in
it. Just as historical buildings are maintained and used, we should do
the same with software. One venue where this does happen is with
Linux-based distributions, which of course include software that dates
back decades (e.g. X11, GCC, Emacs, Perl).

Marcus

[Owen Densmore]

[From a Friam chat today with Dave and Roger amongst others... We'd
like to have your opinions.]

Many will not agree, but it seems to me that programming and
computing is no where near as fun as it once was. The Apple II was
more fun than computers today. Woz's Basic had thrills hidden
inside. The Windows vs Mac vs Linux is a pain and not a joy. Java
is complete but way too difficult. Python is nice but their stupid
version wars and library wars leave users in limbo. The "agile"
languages are cool but have 1/100th or worse the performance of C/C++/
Java and have no window systems thus depend on "web" UIs or weird
things like wxWindows and other ad-hockery. Vendors don't care about
their customers and create havoc in terms of interoperability.

The XO seems to be getting at the heart of the matter: building a
system so innovative that it overcomes the drudgery .. but note that
idiots are trying to port Windows to the XO! Maybe the gPhone/
Android may make phones fun. But then the iPhone proves Apple is
evil as we knew they were by their horrid locked and ATT monopoly.
DRM makes media difficult to use and stifles creativity.

So the questions are:
- Are you having fun?
- What exactly do you think is the problem?
- What would make computing fun and innovative again for you?

-- Owen