stoid
May 20, 2005, 12:06 PM
I was reading The Salmon of Doubt which contains several random musings by Douglas Adams. Listening to it, I caught a rant that he submitted to MacUser back in 1989 that describes a productivity system very similar to Automator.
What I'm talking about is the death of the 'application'. I don't mean just when they 'unexpectedly' quit, I mean it's time we simply got rid of them. And getting hold of the tools I need should be as simple as pasting a button into HyperCard.
Ah! HyperCard!
I know it's unfashionable to say this, because a lot of people feel that HyperCard simply isn't powerful enough to do useful work in. It is, after all, a first stab at an idea that's in its infancy. The list of things you can't do with it is almost as long as the list of macros in Nisus (what are all those things? The very act of pulling down the macros menu causes lights to dim all over North London) but it's a sensationally good idea, and I would dearly love to see something like it become the whole working environment for the Mac. You want the number crunching power of Excel? paste it in. You want animation? paste in Director. You don't like the way Director works? (you must be mad. It's brilliant) paste in the bits you like of any other animation tools you find lying about.
Or even rewrite it.
If it's properly written in object oriented code it should be as easy as writing HyperTalk. (Alright. You can't write HyperTalk. It should be easier to write than HyperTalk. Just point at the bits you like and click) We should not have to be tyrannised by application designers who don't know the first thing about how actual people do their actual work, we should be able just pick up the bits we like and paste them in.
It's about halfway down in the full article. (http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/980707-00-a.html)
What I'm talking about is the death of the 'application'. I don't mean just when they 'unexpectedly' quit, I mean it's time we simply got rid of them. And getting hold of the tools I need should be as simple as pasting a button into HyperCard.
Ah! HyperCard!
I know it's unfashionable to say this, because a lot of people feel that HyperCard simply isn't powerful enough to do useful work in. It is, after all, a first stab at an idea that's in its infancy. The list of things you can't do with it is almost as long as the list of macros in Nisus (what are all those things? The very act of pulling down the macros menu causes lights to dim all over North London) but it's a sensationally good idea, and I would dearly love to see something like it become the whole working environment for the Mac. You want the number crunching power of Excel? paste it in. You want animation? paste in Director. You don't like the way Director works? (you must be mad. It's brilliant) paste in the bits you like of any other animation tools you find lying about.
Or even rewrite it.
If it's properly written in object oriented code it should be as easy as writing HyperTalk. (Alright. You can't write HyperTalk. It should be easier to write than HyperTalk. Just point at the bits you like and click) We should not have to be tyrannised by application designers who don't know the first thing about how actual people do their actual work, we should be able just pick up the bits we like and paste them in.
It's about halfway down in the full article. (http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/980707-00-a.html)
