HN user

machello13

827 karma
Posts0
Comments328
View on HN
No posts found.

For reasons I don't totally understand, the platform vendors are themselves constantly invalidating the information in users' heads, so there's simply less in there for application developers to build on anyway.

To be honest, I'm not sure this is true. macOS has had pretty much 1 major redesign in recent memory (Big Sur), and even that is mostly a visual update -- functionality is all still there and works the same. Toolbar buttons are still toolbar buttons, you can still drag and drop them around, etc etc. In practice, the amount that actually "churned" is pretty small.

Does it need to be? Not anymore.

I disagree. The fact that most users don't explicitly care is irrelevant — platform conventions are important. They teach a user how to use a new app without having to poke around. Users can drag and drop from one app to another and it just works.

I certainly see the argument that for many companies, it's simply too expensive to write native apps for every platform. But I don't think we need to pretend that non-native apps aren't worse — they're just economical and generally, even at their best, just _okay_.

I think Apple’s argument for why slide to delete is not explained would be that it’s a shortcut — the explicit way to delete is to tap “edit” or “select” in a view, which exposes an explicit delete button on each row, or the ability to select rows and delete multiple. This is all explicit through buttons in the UI, and all of Apple’s apps tend to have this behavior (I can’t speak as to whatever UI you were trying to use 12 years ago). I would call that the “standard” way, whereas slide to delete is the fast way.

Android is based on Linux but isn't what anyone means when they talk about Linux. Plenty of stuff runs on Linux but the comment you're replying to mentioned usability specifically. Do you think Linux's general usability (i.e., not for you specifically, but for the average computer user) is on par with other OSes?

New Kind of Paper 5 years ago

I find the current state of the art on stylus text entry so disappointing.

I think your idea of the state of the art may be several years out of date.

From that wikipedia article:

A common argument in the debate about whether cat ownership is ethical involves the question of toxoplasma gondii transmission to humans.[58] Even though "living in a household with a cat that used a litter box was strongly associated with infection,"[32] and that living with several kittens or any cat under one year of age has some significance,[59] several other studies claim to have shown that living in a household with a cat is not a significant risk factor for T. gondii infection. [49][60]

macOS only caters to folks who prefer simplicity over power features

This is said quite often, almost as a given, but I never thought it reflected reality. macOS has an abundance of useful features for power users — system services, automator, AppleScript, tons of productivity touches like titlebar proxy icons and universal drag-and-drop support... not to mention it's all built on Unix so a terminal is right there for anything not exposed in the UI.

True. But taking an overnight trip from NYC to Chicago is something you can do right now that is just as pleasant as the experience you described. There's definitely fewer options for destinations or schedules but the experience is there if you want it.