[NTLK] *nix developer culture (OT) (was: WWNC & Einstein)

From: Dan Mills (vthunder_at_gmail.com)
Date: Fri Sep 10 2004 - 20:45:14 PDT


Hm. I can't figure out how to change the References header via gmail,
so I apologize if things don't thread right.

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 19:35:04 -0500, Jim Witte <jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us> wrote:
> > The *nix developer culture has that paths with spaces are evil, so not
> > much uses them, so those edge cases don't get tested much,
>
> And also, the edge doesn't get "blunted" - ie fixed in the relevant
> toolchains. IMHO (and very humble, since I am not in the *NIX
> culture), the *NIX culture doesn't see these things as problems (and
> they're not *developer* problems, they're human-interface problems), so
> they don't change the tools to fix them.

Specifically, we were talking about spaces in directories, which do
work for users in general, but break down in some cases--the example
being automake. No one except a developer is going to be writing
Makefile.am (automake) files.

> Apple, on the other hand, *is* concerned (a great deal, though
> debatably less so in recent years) with HCI (after all, they sell
> computers and software to non-developers), so they *do* worry about
> these "rough edges"..

There *are* people who care deeply about usability and are actively
working to improve it in the *nix world. e.g., the gnome crowd (who I
am affiliated with, though not for usability work).

-Dan

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