Sunday, September 21, 2003


How Much Convenience Do You Want?


I was reading an entry on the Blosxom mailing list and I realized something (funny? embarassing?) about myself. I go out of my way to make certain technical tasks more difficult than they strictly need to be.

Here’s the post that started me thinking in this direction. Two listmembers immediately and helpfully posted links to plugins which will automagically handle graphic linking and sizing. Fine, I thought, I suppose I could use those plugins too, to simplify adding graphics to new posts… and then I stopped. I don’t want to use those plugins to make marking up graphics easier. I actually enjoy the process of:

  1. Jacking a graphic from somewhere. If I can grab it using curl rather than some wimpy old web browser, all the better.
  2. Running file and/or jpeginfo or tiffinfo to get the file’s dimensions, color depth, etc.
  3. Running some hideously long chain of piped NetPBM and ImageMagick (built from source, naturally) commands against the downloaded file to size, smooth, sharpen, invert, crop, or whatever needs to happen to the graphic to make it fit.
  4. Entering the <IMG> markup by hand, including the width, height, align and alt values, plus hspace and vspace, if necessary.

Now this is just crazy. I’m sitting in front of a Macintosh. I should be using Photoshop or GraphicConverter or whatever else to do this in 2.5 seconds. Instead, I’m busting out the man pages, typing command lines that sometimes wrap twice, and all the rest. Why on earth am I doing this? I’ve even got tools that will take closer-to-English wiki-ish and Textile markup and convert it to HTML automatically, yet here I sit in a text editor tagging this entry using no macros.

Why? Because, at some sad level, I like doing it this way. I can’t explain it. It makes no logical sense. I guess it’s some twisted reflection of the impulse that compels the fisherman to strike out to the lake at 5AM with a pole over his shoulder, rather than spending 2 minutes at the fish counter at the local market. Only the fisherman gets to spend time communing with nature, and I just end up making my wrists hurt a little more.

Of course I didn’t install the Blosxom automatic image plugins. That wouldn’t be sporting.


:: Dave Walker 18:26 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/tech/computers/blosxom]
:: tags:

:: Comments (1)

Comments:

Mellgren wrote:

Title: Am I lazy?

Date:

Response:
Aren't computers supposed to "do" something? Any non-geek asks this question: "Ooh, new computer, huh? What does it do?"

Funny way to think about Dave Walker's convenience post, but the computer just sits there until we tell it to "do". Right? It's dumb as a brick, just sitting there producing heat like my 'fridgerator. If I don't tell it to do something, why not turn the stupid box off?

I'm with you. I hand code. Sometimes I get lazy and cut-n-paste all over but still by hand, in a stupid text editor, without color syntax, with wrists that don't thank me. That's the only way I can trust "it" will happen. However, I do look forward to PhotoShop. It is like a toy to me. I run AutoCAD all day (the only useful command line on a Win system). I write AutoLisp, HTML, perl, etc. by hand. I've tried GoLive and other webmaster-in-a-box and I hate them all. They all want to add cute JS crap and misc garbage. "Let me write my own garbage."



"Twas bergen and the eirie road Did mahwah into patterson: "Beware the Hopatcong, my son! All jersey were the ocean groves, The teeth that bite, the nails And the red bank bayonne. that claw! Beware the bound brook bird, and shun He took his belmar blade in hand: The kearney communipaw." Long time the folsom foe he sought Till rested he by a bayway tree And, as in nutley thought he stood, And stood a while in thought. The Hopatcong with eyes of flame, Came whippany through the englewood, One, two, one, two, and through And garfield as it came. and through The belmar blade went hackensack! "And hast thou slain the Hopatcong? He left it dead and with it's head Come to my arms, my perth amboy! He went weehawken back. Hohokus day! Soho! Rahway!" He caldwell in his joy. Did mahwah into patterson: All jersey were the ocean groves, And the red bank bayonne. -- Paul Kieffer