Snap Computer Thoughts

From Unfocusgroup.org

May 2010

• I see that HTML5 has deprecated the <font> tag.... personally, I really liked font tags. They did what they said they did, and I don't agree that CSS is in any way more "proper". CSS just seems like creating yet another language to augment HTML, instead of making everything do-able in one language. This contributes to browser bloat, and the general staleness of the web as developers grapple with having to use several languages on the client-side, rather than doing useful work in making web applications excellent. Personally, I would prefer something like Postscript, which combines a scripting language with all the layout commands you could ever possibly need. Adobe were ahead of their time with this one (but ruined it with their implementation of the PDF viewer, which should have been embedded like Flash). I haven't used Adobe AIR yet but it seems like a kludge, and another reminder that many programmers these days don't know what they hell they're doing. AJAX is just never gonna replace "proper" applications. It's just too clunky. AJAX web-based programs are never going to be reliable or flexible enough to compete with downloadable runtime binaries. The only thing that can save us is if one browser manufacturer creates a killer extension that becomes a de facto standard (Chrome seems like a likely contender).
• What is it with applications that install under the company name rather than the name of the product? The start menu is hard enough to navigate as it is... talking of installation, please can we scrap the registry and the "program files" folder and go back to installing applications under c:\nameofprogram - I remember installing DBASE using copy a:\*.* c:\dbase, and uninstalling it using del c:\dbase\*.* - so much easier.
• Google's new look: google seem to have done a "facebook", and had a makeover. It's obviously rubbish. Bring back the old Google!

17 Jun 09

• It takes a fool to create something that only a genius can use, and a genius to create something that any fool can use.

7 Jun 09

• I hate applications that put unnecessary stuff in your taskbar/system tray! Today I had to delete a little ebay icon that appeared out of nowhere. Every application seems to think that it has the right to live in the bottom-right hand corner of your screen. Just say no!

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