Re: [External] : Running emacs without any customisation

[Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>]

uzibalqa wrote:

>>> What I see, is a stumbling block that experienced people
>>> can't get passed because they are being limited by the
>>> past, that things have been this way for decades. I do not
>>> see the great designers like Guy Steele or Richard
>>> Stallman at their prime anymore.
>> 
>> Here, you're seeing the work of the great designer Joel
>> McCormack, of Digital WSL, at his prime.
>
> That was in the 70's. Who are the equivalent people today?

One can never answer where the "equivalent people" are in
a meaningful way. One cannot compare between fields and one
cannot compare one decade to another - well, this makes for
fun magazine articles perhaps, but it's just bogus if one
looks for a real answer in it. So don't do that!

That said, I think it's safe to say today's people are as good
or better in terms of technology: "development has gone
forward" as the tautology goes ...

But: was this more easy, or more difficult to do? Did it
require less, or more brilliance? Those questions do not
compute ...

Also note that the "70s people", if active still, are also as
much "today's people" as any 20 year old!

The first programmer in the world was probably some shaman in
a cave. He would cut symbol's out of the stone wall, then
inhale toxic fumes from the fireplace, and eat mushrooms he
had carefully collected in the wood. Then he would stare on
the inscriptions on the wall until he collapsed of mental and
physical fatigue - the program had then executed in his head,
and when he awoke with a big grin on his face he would have
found the answer to his question ...

Now, if you would grab him from the stone age to OUR age and
say, "Yes, uhm ... so today we don't use the cave wall
anymore, and not the fire either actually! Instead we have an
editor and a compiler, here, take a look ..." probably he
would just say, " ... okay!" and the next time you'd see him
he would stare into the monitor in deep thought writing
code ...

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal