Deep, explorable usefulware
There is a class of software that is so rich in potentially useful features that even after years of use there is still more to be discovered. Perhaps it has features that you do not need now but may come to need in the future. And these aren't useless features that bloat the product--rather the software is so mature and has been worked on by so many for so long that there is so much in it to explore.
I love playing with these feature-rich tools and I'd be interested to hear of others. Here's an initial list of "deep, explorable usefulware":
I love playing with these feature-rich tools and I'd be interested to hear of others. Here's an initial list of "deep, explorable usefulware":
- jEdit. Lots in here, but I think I've seen most of it after a year of use. To do: write a plugin.
- XEmacs. I've used maybe 20% of its power (the fundamental 20%). Was my main editor before jEdit.
- AutoHotKey. Macro language/recorder for scripting most aspects of Windows, including key remapping. People have done some amazing things with it.
- Cygwin. Many useful Unix tools ported to Windows. Includes lynx, the text tools, etc.
- Gimp and Inkscape. Would like to explore these tools more; I simply don't find myself needing to use them often. I hear Gimp has scripting capability.
posted by Jonathan at
7/23/2006 11:31:00 a.m.
16 Comments:
Deep software. Usefulware. Good words!
I'd add Photoshop to the list, though I suppose an unmentioned criterion is "free" too. And compared to these, it contains a wee bit much features that creep the interface or that find you, rather than you them, in a way that not always leaves you understanding what just happened.
(That could of course be argued true about XEmacs too, though it has a somewhat more well defined set of keyboard shortcut behaviours that are safe, vs that may trigger its interesting deeper feature sets.)
By
Johan Sundström, at 7/23/2006 1:55 p.m.
Johan--good one--I'll need to check out PhotoShop (although the price is a barrier). "Features that find you"--I'm intrigued!
Yoz--lemme guess-Ning... Winamp? Interesting--I shall explore...
By
Jonathan, at 7/23/2006 7:50 p.m.
While "features that find you" may, to the naked ear, sound right, it is just the kind of thing that spooks and/or annoys users.
Like Microsoft Word's supposedly helpful "clip" icon that pops up in the middle of a document whenever I paste some text there with Ctrl+V, creating problems for me, at the expense of (perhaps!) making some feature available via that icon more discoverable for someone else. For me, it just serves to add great feelings of discomfort and "make it go away!", though not enough to have me attack documentation and googling and whatnot to find out how to do that, as I'm sure there is no end to the flow of such features in present and coming Microsoft Words, so I'm spending my time better reverting to emacs as quickly as I can again.
It's very difficult getting those "features that find you" to work right, without causing more problems than they supposedly solve.
By
Johan Sundström, at 7/28/2006 2:50 a.m.
Ah--in the annoying sense. Gotcha.
By
Jonathan, at 7/28/2006 9:49 p.m.
Photoshop should definitely be on the list; Winamp, of course (you couldn't be more right yoz). As for new nominees, to my constern, I can only venture with confidence Vim and Mathematica, but I'm sure I'm missing someone. QuickSilver looks like it may become deep software eventually but it's just a hunch, I don't even have a mac.
Deep software is one great concept Jon. Too bad the web's still too young to have its own nominees but I'm sure ten years from now web-apps will make most of the list (and YubNub will be among them, I assure you). Let's redo the list then--Jul 23, 2016, that is.
By
Anonymous, at 9/08/2006 7:40 a.m.
Thanks elzr. I have marked Sunday, July 23 2016 on my calendar and we'll compare notes on that day!
By
Jonathan, at 9/08/2006 9:29 p.m.
I think that software plugins are adding a new depth to software such as WordPress, WinAmp, and Firefox.
Off the top of my head, some programs I'd consider deep software on their own are the clipboard extender ArsClip and the text editors NoteTab and PSPad.
By
Anonymous, at 10/04/2006 5:46 p.m.
Thanks Matt--I'll check out ArsClip
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Jonathan, at 10/04/2006 9:23 p.m.
some softwares i find to be usefulware include :
- AutoHotKey
- TiddlyWiki
- and last, but not least YubNub
By
Anonymous, at 10/09/2006 4:07 p.m.
Beauty--thanks Yann. I need to try TiddlyWiki again.
By
Jonathan, at 10/10/2006 7:27 p.m.
you should try slickrun. I just started using it last month, but wow it's really useful. It's a hotkeyed CLI, with keywords. I just found yubnub today, to combine them, I just set up a keyword called "http://yubnub.org/parser/parse?command=$W$"
that way I can just type in "y gim tv" to use it.
By
Anonymous, at 10/27/2006 11:35 a.m.
Hi Anon – I have been enjoying SlickRun for the past 6 months or so. It's great. I've assigned YubNub to "yu" - because there's also a YubNub command (for YubNub) called "yu", that means I can use the "yu" prefix both on and off YubNub and its various conduits (Firefox search plugin, etc.)
By
Jonathan, at 10/27/2006 9:08 p.m.
Please check out 'Transfx' (freeware - Windows only).
http://www.transfz.com/
- Random surfer from Finland -
By
Anonymous, at 7/21/2007 1:26 a.m.
Alas, that website seems to be down currently.
By
Jonathan, at 7/21/2007 10:14 a.m.
We should add the Directory Opus file manager to the list. It has a huge number of options, accreted since its early days on the Amiga platform.
By
Jonathan, at 8/14/2007 12:40 p.m.
Another one to add to the list: Far Manager.
By
Jonathan, at 5/22/2009 6:19 p.m.
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