Re: humans and technology

[Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com>]

hector wrote:

> Well. You should formally define "good" and
> "better". Not an easy task.

Have you seen this chart? [1] I have to say
I agree 100% - at least with respect to the
upper echelons. The stuff below I can't assess
because I never used it :)

Actually when I meet a random guy at the gym
and he tells me he is a Java developer I try my
hardest not to show my elitism. It is really
difficult for me to think of a guy using
Windows, Eclipse, and Java as a hacker.
Does not compute! But I suppose he is?

And one could make similar charts for all other
pieces of technology as well. Unix (Linux)
superior to Windows. CLI superior to GUI
(except for CAD, GIS and stuff that are visual
in nature - but even here there is for example
gnuplot! - not "gnu" as in GNU by the way).
Databases: SQL. Documents: LaTeX. And so on.

As for the editor there is one issue of what
editor is better than the other. I didn't use
Vim so I can't tell. Obviously Emacs is more
powerful than Nano and the likes. However the
more important thing is that the editor is not
just an editor, it is the *key* to the whole
computer system! And I believe Emacs is the
number one such key.

> Our way of life has nothing to do with that
> of our grandfathers.

We are genetically the same. But what one does
is so important! If one guy works in the
forest all day and the other writes code...
However if they switched places for a couple of
weeks the programmer would already start to
look, act, and think like a wood chopper. It is
an open question who would adapt more quickly.
I suppose it would depend on the particular
persons, as well.

[1] http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/hierarchy.png

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