Re:Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
by bitwize on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @03:53PM
(#23470180)
Quaxity quuxity,
Teitelman's Interlisp
Has a DWIM feature that's
Really a screw;
MACLISP has evident
Superiority
Letting its customer
Mean what he do.
--The Great Quux (Guy L. Steele)
This poem indicates the frustrations that hackers had with DWIM at the time, which may explain why no one tried to resurrect it. Too-clever-by-half features intended to help tend to drive people nuts, especially when they fail. Even when they succeed, they interrupt the user's flow and become like that dialog box Windows users just dismiss.
Teitelman's Interlisp
Has a DWIM feature that's
Really a screw;
MACLISP has evident
Superiority
Letting its customer
Mean what he do.
--The Great Quux (Guy L. Steele)
This poem indicates the frustrations that hackers had with DWIM at the time, which may explain why no one tried to resurrect it. Too-clever-by-half features intended to help tend to drive people nuts, especially when they fail. Even when they succeed, they interrupt the user's flow and become like that dialog box Windows users just dismiss.