Re: *nix

[David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>]

On Sun 16 Feb 2020 at 13:03:05 (-0800), Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:10:01 +0100 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Du, 16 feb 20, 09:36:16, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> >> On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:20:01 +0100 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Just use whatever works for you.
> >>
> >> If you can.  I really resent the increasing amount of coercion
> >> toward using GUIs (no keyboard equivalents for menus, etc.) that
> >> I'm seeing in modern software.
> >
> > Coercion is a strong word. It seems to me it's rather a form of
> > demand and supply.
> 
> They're demanding you use what they supply.

I can understand that on systems where you don't have a choice;
for example, Hulu on Roku, where they introduced a new interface
to much disapproval. Many TV interfaces now look as though they
were designed for mobile phones, and I suspect they are.

But with Debian, you have choices. I prefer a GUI for browsing,
and obviously for graphics processing, but one or two other
programs bridge the gap, like gnumeric and xpdf, where I almost
entirely use the keyboard, but a few operations are easier with
a mouse, like copying text out of xpdf, or adjusting column widths
in gnumeric, for example.

And I can't think of any software that has been deliberately
withdrawn because of a GUI replacement.

> > With touchscreen technology becoming the standard even for laptops
> > and desktop monitors the demand for keyboard oriented interaction
> > decreases so the developers must create interfaces that are better
> > suited for tap / swipe.
> 
> Fine.  But the keyboard should still be an option.  All I'm asking
> is that I be allowed to choose.  I'm not insisting that everyone
> use a keyboard, and likewise people should not insist that I
> _not_ use a keyboard.

Perhaps you're not choosing your software with sufficient discernment.
I gravitate towards applications that have keyboard shortcuts/functions
and allow you to define more of them.

Where that's not straightforward, then I try to coerce some other
application to do the job. So, for example, I define keys in my
window manager, fvwm, to do such things as control audio levels
(amixer), take screenshots (scrot) and capture movies (ffmpeg),
rotate the screen (xrandr), and even emulate Left and Right
Mouse Clicks, as well as all the usual window functions (raise,
lower, resize, move, etc).

So my mouse gets very little exercise, and most of the time it's
just used to set which window has focus.

> > The keyboard will soon be used exclusively for text entry and will
> > probably disappear as soon as we have something better,
> 
> FSVO "better"

Well, screens don't seem to have killed off keyboards, as people
furiously type away with their thumbs on faked ones.

> > like voice dictation,
> 
> Good luck if you have a cold.

Or want any privacy. Or want to carry on a conversation at the same time.

> > direct neural interface, whatever.
> 
> Now _that_ might be interesting...

Alarming. Now there would be justification for thought police.

Cheers,
David.

BTW Because your email client seems unable to cope with threading,
I sometimes link posts manually with mutt's & key; which means
I look at your quoting attribution text (to link it the correct
parent). I find its text curious.

For example, the post I'm replying to has
    On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:10:01 +0100 Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
but the email from Andrei POPESCU quoted is timestamped
    Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:50:52 +0200

Apart from any timezone mixups (I prefer my attributions to be given
in the timezone of the post quoted), where does a time of ten minutes
and one second past the hour—past any hour—come from? I can't see a
time resembling that anywhere in the header.