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Amish Computing (forked from:Question: What software is absolutely essential to you)
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Posted by JBfrom
Aug 13, 2011 at 07:53 AM
“Here?s my theory (which will probably be blown out of the water by this esteemed group): Anyone who started computing in the DOS ages would not be overly attracted to Amish computing, because AC would remind us too much of DOS. Then again (and now I?m blowing my own theory out of the water), perhaps we would be more likely to be attracted to AC, because it reminds us of the innocence of our youth.”
Steve, are you suggesting there’s someone on here that doesn’t remember DOS? This is like the first post on the internet that makes me feel old. Everybody knows the best games are on DOS… Bill Gates’ abomination just can’t run the graphics. Dune II and Raptor for the win.
I admit though when I was mucking about in DOS, personal productivity was far from my mind, inventive time wasting being the first priority. I do miss the cryptic error messages… the only text-based RPG I ever played. Completely turned me off to the genre.
Posted by JohnK
Aug 13, 2011 at 12:50 PM
I do think Steve is right—your opinions on this topic are likely to be age-related.
I started in the DOS world and yes, I live in plain text wherever possible. For example I don’t think I’ve ever sent an HTML email, and I still get irritated when people send me HTML emails that just contain text. Don’t they know that that email is 5kB in size, whereas the plain text version would have been less than 1kB? Yet that’s what most people do, because it’s the default setting in most email programs. All those terabtyes wasted every day.
Showing my age again. No one seems to worry about wasting bytes any more. But they should. It’s just another way of saving the world’s resources.
Plain text is about speed, efficiency and stability. And of course it’s a universal format. But if plain text isn’t the right tool for the job, I don’t think twice about using something else. I just have a built-in bias towards plain text.
Posted by gunars
Aug 13, 2011 at 03:50 PM
> are you suggesting there’s someone on here that doesn’t remember DOS? This is like the first post on the internet that makes me feel old.
Hmm, then you probably didn’t start with punched paper tape and cards, not to mention toggling in programs via front panel switches, young whippersnapper :-).
As for txt files reminding one of DOS - well, I suppose they do (and I still use them a great deal on Linux), but DOS was also the time of Tornado Notes and the first InfoSelect, MemoryMate, MaxThink, Lotus Agenda, GrandView and WordPerfect/DOS and Borland Sprint.
Posted by Zman
Aug 13, 2011 at 08:26 PM
>After a bit of
>research, I decided to try out Emacs Org-mode. Wow, you talk about power, it oozes
>power beyond all reality. The excitement grew, and next thing I know, I’m proudly
>showing off my org-mode usage to co-workers, who often asked “Are you writing code
>these days?”.
>
Real Amish mode for me is fountain pen and notebook.
In my thinking, Org-mode and tools like the mathmatica add-on (an interesting thing to play with BTW) are the antithesis of Amish computing. I think of Amish computing as Linux, some file folders, a basic text editor, and grep. Or DOS equivalents (used to be no equivalent to grep - there is now, you could use Powershell or any of several others).
Having grown up on punch cards and then DOS, I have no particular desire to go to text - I like playing with new toys - and I play and think in multidimensional networks of thoughts, so flat text files are uninteresting…
Now if we could combine connectedtext, Personalbrain, and zoot xt together into one product then all would be well…
Posted by DaXiong
Aug 14, 2011 at 04:21 AM
Well, since this is a fork from my original post, guess I should speak up.
For the record, I started using computers pre-DOS, and have never used an Apple computer. The first I owned was a Zenith 248 that I went crazy and got the 10Mb hard drive and “crammed” 1 meg or RAM into. Those were the days.
Most of what I use an outliner for is writing, not as an organizer. I have a number of part-time interests that share one common element - communicating. I give talks, teach, write short articles, give presentations, etc. So for me, Inspiration is what I use the most (although I still have a lot in TreePad). I want to love Scrivener for Windows, but ...
The simple fact is, text files work. Maybe not elegantly, and definitely not “pretty” ... but functionally they’re small, fast and get the job done. Plus, as an added benefit, I’m not trapped into one program’s file format. I do not try and live all in one large text file that holds everything (that would be insane, even for me). I’ve toyed once or twice with markdown and other markup languages, but I keep coming back to a simple text file, using Notepad++ as my editor.
The only reason I have just given up on everything else and committed to txt files (well, txt and rtf files) 100% is the program ConnectedText. Yeah, CT keeps trying to seduce me. I’ve got a number of projects in it, and the more I use it, the more I see it has potential. It’s not quite as easy at the early stages of writing where creativity is needed, but its outliner is great, and as a writing environment its not bad.
I have the utmost respect for the regulars here - Steve’s comment about remembering DOS days made me think. Most of the truly great programs I’ve used were DOS (Ecco being the standout exception). Has Windows hurt applications by changing the user paradigm? Maybe that’s why I’ve gone back to text files.
The answers I got to the original question helped in this quest, and as for Amish Computing ... I’ve noticed the Amish focus on sustainable quality. Who wouldn’t want a program that was well coded, bug-free, and did what it claimed to do ... and then stuck around so we could use it?
Anyways, those are my thoughts ....