Cobbling together the jigsaw of pieces after an iBook crash got me thinking. I don't believe being 'old' adds value to any antiques I've ever seen... (I'd be worth a fortune if that were true) however, on my old Mac 512KE... I wondered why a lot of the programmes seemed to be much more 'elegant' than the ones I use today?
Obviously memory was in such short supply that space constraints forced each keystroke to count. Thus there were no ragged bits left hanging round the edges and no space for devious work-arounds to circumnavigate patent laws
But, the biggest benefit... there was no room for bells and whistles!
Today programmes have more bells, knobs and whistles than a pipe organ! One I use has well over 1000 preferences, 58 on the working surface alone. Many requiring the seasoned smarts of a shopsoiled typographer to comprehend.
Would it not add value to offer a rock-solid, plain vanilla programme with all the foreign cherries and chocolate toppings offered as optional bolt-ons?
Or am I being too simplistic?
“It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer.
William of Ockham
14th Cent.