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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 15-06-18 02:12 AM, Ron Garret wrote
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<blockquote cite="mid:1991FE1B-048D-43CF-B369-F13E10A11FD7@flownet.com" type="cite">
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<pre wrap="">For various reasons I really, really hate the idea that everything in the modern world should be a web app.
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Can you elaborate on these “various reasons”?</pre>
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<br>
Yes, I can. This will be a semi-rant, but of course nobody has to
read it!<br>
<br>
First some context:<br>
<br>
My views are very subjective. I admit that I may sometimes be
misinformed about what is going on "under the hood" with web
applications. Moreover, since I am retired and have no commercial
constraints related to interoperability or delivering software
updates, my view is skewed by that.<br>
<br>
I spent over a year doing an application in CL as a web application.
This particular software <i>should</i> have been done as a web
application (by my criteria). I used ccl, hunchentoot, cl-who,
xuriella, clsql, and other CL stuff, and of course javascript
(mostly jquery) and css. This "stack" was great for that particular
application. There are times when it seems perfectly right to have
part of my software running on a server across a network, and part
on a local device (even when both are the <i>same</i> device, of
course). But not <i>all the time</i>.<br>
<br>
So in other contexts I don't want to go that way. I have an aversion
being forced into thinking of <i>everything</i> as having an
in-your-face client-server architecture. (Yeah, I know X works that
way too, more or less.)<br>
<br>
I have a deep aversion to what appears to me to be an "inner
platform" anti-pattern. I cannot abide the idea that the web browser
is now my operating system <i>all the time</i>. I hate the endless
layers upon layers upon layers that exist, as I see it, not because
these abstractions help me but because there is some element of
"worse is better" and reinventing the wheel to this evolution.<br>
<br>
I do not like javascript. I am not comforted by the fact that
"javascript now compiles to native code". I don't like layers of
abstraction <i>on top</i> of javascript (parenscript or things that
compile to javascript.) I do not like CSS. I do not like SVG or
MathML (despite spending nearly a decade before retirement doing an
all-XML project.) Why? I feel no need to justify my aversion,
anymore than I feel obliged to explain why I don't like red licorice
twizzlers. These tools have their uses, but I doubt they are always
the best choice. And, I don't like them.<br>
<br>
I grate my teeth whenever I read some idiot tech writer proclaiming
for the umpteenth time that "the desktop is dead". Of course there
is some truth to that, in the sense that people quite rationally use
mobile devices when it makes sense. But mostly it's kind of "ewwwww
you old guys; NOBODY uses Facebook/wears white socks/drives a Buick
anymore". Whatever. Fuck off and take some pictures of your lunch.<br>
<br>
A year ago I tried Google's suite of "desktop applications" and just
absolutely loathed them. But then, I also spent nearly ten years
forced to use MS Word at work, became fairly proficient at it, <i>and
totally hate desktop publishing stuff.</i> To this day I use emacs
and tex for writing documents. So no wonder I don't want to compose
a document on a web application. Even when I blog I use emacs and
org mode to compose. Not the half-baked editors that wordpress
provides.<br>
<br>
I spend quite a lot of time doing OpenCL, and am learning OpenGL. I
am at long last actually working my way through <i>The Art of
Computer Programming</i>, and yes - I have learned MMIX to do it.
So I have some preference for being "close to the metal", although I
admit that there are plenty of layers there that I am happily ignore
or don't even realize exist.<br>
<br>
So maybe I am just psychologically wired to go against the grain.
After all, I prefer Common Lisp to any of the languages I have ever
used, even though I only started with CL about five years ago.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
<br>
- TL -<br>
<br>
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