Productivity. As simple as that. Carl Sassenrath, CTO

REBOL Technologies

3-Dec-2008 19:38 GMT

Article #0381

Main page || Index || Prior Article [0380] || Next Article [0382] || 51 Comments || Send feedback Look, bottom line: REBOL makes me productive. And, to me, productivity is everything. That's why I write and use REBOL. That's why I keep writing and using it. I'm not a techie. Maybe you think I am. No... I live in the mountains. I plant Redwood trees, grow grapes, make wine, learn French, watch the wildlife (the coyote, deer, and a lot of wild turkeys this week), the fog, the sunsets. I seldom leave the ranch, maybe to play tennis. I watch the antics of the world from here - the news feeds, as many as I can find. I like useful things. I like systems I can control, shape, and put to work. Small systems. Smart systems. Don't give me a 500MB software program if a 1MB can do what I need, or even better, 10KB. You know, I have to face up that in most regards, I've lost productivity over the last decade. These days, for me, computers seem to create more problems for me than they solve. And oddly, when I look around, most businesses and families seem to have those same problems with their computers. I think back to 1998... when computers actually worked well for me. I wrote all my docs, created my diagrams, built web sites, created necessary web images, managed spreadsheets, sent faxes... from a fine little Apple Macintosh of that era. (I know that some of you want me to say Commodore Amiga here, but remember I worked in development at Apple Computer too.) Well, I really don't want to tell you what I use these days. It's not that I haven't kept up, it's that I'm tired of managing office suites, multi-gigabyte software packages, messed up installations, dealing with incompatible libraries, fixing registry conflicts, on and on. What's up with computing? It's suppose to make us more productive, isn't it? I don't mean more productive fixing our computers, I mean more productive making products, offering services, or enjoying our lives. I don't have time for modern software. Every hour of my day needs to count for something. I spend my time making things, writing, building... not repairing my computer or updating endless components to make Bill richer or Linus cooler. Well, ok, maybe I sound like I'm getting old. Maybe I am? But you know, a mattock pick and a Winchester 1894 lever-action 30-30 are still useful and elegant tools. Time has not changed them. Bill has not improved on them. Linus has not reforged them as free. Look, small systems are better systems. Period. Don't tell me how your 12 layered software technology can do great things. Maybe it can, but next week it will crash. For me, that many layers says it's a broken design, not a better design. It's like credit default swap financial derivatives. Wow, don't those sound great? The house of cards may bring us all down. Anyway... let's see... where's that coyote? He was out front. I need to keep an eye on him. 51 Comments