Post Av1K4OCkOa70LmS3CC by cwebber@social.coop
 (DIR) More posts by cwebber@social.coop
 (DIR) Post #Av1K4OCkOa70LmS3CC by cwebber@social.coop
       2025-06-11T12:09:48Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Ink and Switch wrote a nice blogpost recently talking about "Malleable Software" https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/malleable-software/It resonated with me a lot. The idea of building software that has an on-ramp that keeps on-ramping, guiding a user to not only become an expert, but to make the software their own, really resonated with me.It's felt for a long time that Gnome has gone in the opposite direction. Trying to make something easy and clean, but end users aren't part of that journey.
       
 (DIR) Post #Av1LWetS2ZJgAjTAg4 by cwebber@social.coop
       2025-06-11T12:13:49Z
       
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       I don't just want to focus on the negative: if not Gnome, what *should* we use? Well, I'm not sure anything else is currently ideal. Maybe it's time for something else.I particularly like the bit about the above essay that talks about how Hypercard helped its users grow to become experts. Topical, and thoughtful.This is the kind of direction I want to see from software, one where users are part of the story: software that grows with users, users that grow with software.
       
 (DIR) Post #Av1PBwAL1iRxTck7ou by simulo@hci.social
       2025-06-11T12:48:40Z
       
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       @cwebber What seems to be very hard is making something that works well for perpetual beginners or intermediates but still is malleable.
       
 (DIR) Post #Av1PBwv8DjsdokdUky by cwebber@social.coop
       2025-06-11T12:54:15Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @simulo I think programs which have come with good defaults and a good initial landing but are extensible do exist. Browsers (well, historically), spreadsheet software, etc are good examples.Blender is an interesting piece of software that used to be notorious for being hard to use, and is in a categorically challenging software space, but is now considered given its domain relatively comfortable to pick up. But it's incredibly customizable, and many people become developers by using it
       
 (DIR) Post #Av1PC4gXLsxXtnrx7Q by cwebber@social.coop
       2025-06-11T12:55:22Z
       
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       @simulo I have been impressed by seeing how many artists who are not programmers first have developed tools in Blender using geometry nodes especially. Really cool to see. And many other artists have *become* python programmers by starting out with small customizations