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by ryandrake
1155 days ago
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I'd go even further: I don't want ANY pop-ups of any kind in my computing experience, period. When I set out to do some task, I don't want my attention to be yanked away by anything. Computers should essentially be REPLs. Read my command, execute the command, print the result, and then read my next command. And the equivalent function when using a GUI: I click on something, the computer does that thing, displays the results, and then it waits for me to click on something else. They shouldn't be doing a bunch of stuff on their own in the background. They shouldn't be trying to decide what they want me to be doing. I decide what the computer should be doing! We have drifted so far away from the light--when the user was 100% in charge of everything the computer was doing. |
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And it stands to reason. What does a nerd do in his misspent teenage/college years but get a gaming rig and get on Steam for some AAA action. He builds reflexes and the ability to track and demolish targets.
Therefore when he graduates college and becomes a slinger of code, he writes a UI that capitalizes on video game reflexes that everyone must share. The ability to react within 50ms to a dramatic change on screen. The steely nerves to track a moving target with our finger and tap "Undo" before the interstitial vanishes forever and our action is set in stone. Navigating endless chains of hover-menus by threading the needle, because if you go 3mm off track, you'll need to start all over again.
GUIs today actively punish the user for attempting to anticipate and go ahead with actions before the computer is good and ready, but when that computer starts throwing up dialogs, you'd better be able to keep up.
I had 6502 and 286 based machines that had UIs that were able to react instantly and stably to every input I could give. How can response time and latency worsen in the intervening 30 years?