Re:Web Design: The First 100 Years (2014)
by groby_b on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @07:55PM
(#9926774)
And that's what got us into the mess we're in, because by now there are 754 friendly UIs, and choosing which one you like better is draining your soul.
You. Don't. Want. Infinitely. Configurable.
What you do want is lots of simple, friendly tools with limited configurability that you can connect to solve larger issues.
To compare it to language, you don't want to have two great novels that are paths through "choose your own adventure". You want words that work together, that are composable according to well-understood, simple rules.
Whenever a system like that comes along (unix pipes, REST APIs), people can build amazing things on top of that. The infinitely configurable hypercomplex thing idea gives you XSL:FO, XSLT, the W3C, C++, and assorted fun.
You. Don't. Want. Infinitely. Configurable.
What you do want is lots of simple, friendly tools with limited configurability that you can connect to solve larger issues.
To compare it to language, you don't want to have two great novels that are paths through "choose your own adventure". You want words that work together, that are composable according to well-understood, simple rules.
Whenever a system like that comes along (unix pipes, REST APIs), people can build amazing things on top of that. The infinitely configurable hypercomplex thing idea gives you XSL:FO, XSLT, the W3C, C++, and assorted fun.