Conversation

I think the mistake made by people like me who learned primitive html in the mid 90s is assuming if we stick to that era methods we can avoid the complexities (newer html standards, css, js) and new abstraction layers (frameworks) added since, and still get somewhere usable...
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The thing is the complexity and abstraction layers weren’t just added for expanded capability. They were added to fix issues with the fore of the primitive stuff. But this means even doing the simplest things now requires using the complex features and higher abstraction layers.
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The analogy to non-web programming: it’s as if the invention of Java and C# made BASIC as hard as C or assembly. A kind of trash compaction effect. Adding layers makes lower layers even lower. Hand-coding layers turn into compile targets. You’re now competing with automation.
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So I suspect it would actually be easier for someone like me to learn react rather than stick to primitive harmless/css *even to do the same damn things I knew how to do in 1997* 😱 Red queen’s race. Software automation ate my primitive skill level. Software terk muh jerb
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Basically, the “human” coding layer keeps floating to top and every level below starts evolving to meet the needs of machines. Happened to non-web code too. The invention of C made assembly harder for humans. The invention of assembly made raw machine code harder for humans.
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You see this in other engineering fields too. Once CAD tools start doing a level of design for you, like layout, it quickly evolves past the ability of humans to do. At least at a useful level.
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Non-code example. When I learned mechanical drafting using pencil/paper/t-squares ~1993, we didn’t draw gear tooth profiles. We just drew concentric circles showing inner/outer diameters. Drawing involute profiles by hand is hard. But once you have CAD tool, trivial.
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So modern drawings show full gear geometry. Which means the “blueprint” layer (html of mechanical engineering) now operates at a level human paper draughtsmen can’t compete with. Not even getting into more complex geometries we can’t draw at all.
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Dammit I hate the combo of autocorrect and non-editable tweets. In thread above: harmless = html fore = core
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Shit writing by hand is another low-level abstraction layer that’s being taken over by machines and made impossible for humans. Autocomplete, autocorrect, replacement by emoji, suggested responses in gmail, reusable blocks.. I need a React-like 2nd order writing framework now.
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You can still hand code html and use JS + CSS to fill in the gaps. To repeat, just copy and edit. Gets tedious after a while. So you start your own automation process and end up with a new framework. I'm still waiting for AI.
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Also competing with ego. Turns out all your genius coding can be replicated by filling out a form. Abstraction emasculates artisans of the abstracted.
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