Post ASNbQUvuy2DF0FeRm4 by morewry@indieweb.social
 (DIR) More posts by morewry@indieweb.social
 (DIR) Post #ASNbQTpV4PU7a3do8G by morewry@indieweb.social
       2023-02-05T19:22:35Z
       
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       A thread got me thinking about the patterns in how tech comes and goes. We tend to talk as if replacements won on their merits, but sometimes tech is at its best after it starts obsolescence. Simply because it's been stabilized and improved for years. As a user, it's annoying, because new tech is obviously at its worst at its start. In products, obsolescence is often artificially imposed to exploit consumers. This also applies to open source tech for developers and I think it's toxic.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASNbQUPIvI7nN6OOwK by morewry@indieweb.social
       2023-02-05T19:39:59Z
       
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       In my particular niche, which is web UI, I have seen—again and again—new libraries, frameworks, and development paradigms or tools crowing about being better while ultimately and actually regressing usability, accessibility, and performance for end users. From CoffeeScript to pure-functional paradigms to canvas-rendered UI. People pant after the tech, spend expensive hours rewriting, and ship dismissing any negative impact on users. I mean that literally.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASNbQUvuy2DF0FeRm4 by morewry@indieweb.social
       2023-02-05T19:47:39Z
       
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       One memorable time I replied to someone celebrating a completely inaccessible way of rendering web UI on canvas with WebAssembly because it spelled freedom from the terrible JavaScript and DOM. When I pointed at the issues he told me that he didn't need to be concerned about that because by the time it was in production experts in accessibility would have fixed the problem. The several implications of that don't inspire confidence in me and it wasn't the first nor the last time.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASNbQWVl6GTZthQaHI by morewry@indieweb.social
       2023-02-05T19:54:21Z
       
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       That's our version of that dynamic. And in this context, I don't even think it makes us money. I think it wastes our money. 🤷 It's a profound failure of our professional responsibility to our end users and to the business.And I say "we" because it's not like I've never done this with a tech. The issues are so palpable exactly because I've made the mistakes.