Note to self: if my language has shell programming, there’s no reason you shouldn’t do it the way Julia does.

via: https://julialang.org/blog/2012/03/shelling-out-sucks/

alternative interfaces for creating and editing images and text

Part 2 of The Interfaces With Which We Think

Programs that have their own agenda and that are trying to make it yours, too. Programs that want you to think about them. Programs that think they are entitled to a part of your attention. “Pick me” programs. And you know what? Fuck these programs. Give me back my computer.

In project Beckett, we are building a version control system for scene files in the Godot game engine that preserves these meaningful spatial and structural relationships.

Yup. Three months without search engines. It was… not without issues.

Spreadsheets are particularly useful for thinking through financial models, budgets, or any situation that involves considering lots of possible scenarios. Instead of laboriously redoing a bunch of math, you can quickly ask “what if?” questions and see the effects.

Very nice work by Litt and the Ink and Switch crew. Wondering if there’s a way to combine Ambsheets v1 and v2 to have both a nice interactive grid and clear formulas when you need them.

80% of the people only need 20% of the features.

Users often struggle with cloud file-sharing applications. Problems appear to arise not only from interface flaws, but also from misunderstanding the underlying semantics of operations like linking, attaching, downloading, and editing. We argue that these difficulties echo long-standing challenges in understanding concepts in programming languages like aliasing, copying, and mutation.

via: https://blog.brownplt.org/2025/08/25/cloud-sharing.html

Progressive disclosure is an interaction design pattern used to make applications easier to learn and less error-prone. It does so by deferring some advanced or rarely-used features to a secondary screen and designing workflows where information is revealed when it becomes relevant to the current task.

I feel like I use this philosophy a lot in my pedagogy and teaching: show only 2;#5 is necessary.

via: https://graic.net/p/left-to-right-programming

Programs should be valid as they are typed.

via: https://lobste.rs/s/ik0pjv/left_right_programming

Decent Patterns is a collective effort to further the adoption of decentralized technologies by providing open tooling and resources for the community.

via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKOwTHQ2Jzc

Local-first technologies face unique UX challenges. Let’s explore and discuss what’s needed to address them!

Today we have thousands of apps to choose from, but it’s difficult to craft our own custom tools that do exactly what we need. Geoffrey Litt’s research explores malleable software: approaching software that feels more like a Lego set that anyone can combine to create their own tools, without programming. This talk will feature demonstrations of malleable software tools developed in contexts from travel planning to collaborative writing. It will also discuss how AI might enable a Cambrian explosion of custom tools created by non-programmers, and what kinds of new software environments will be needed to take advantage of that new power.

Great overview of Geoffrey’s work over the past few years and how LLMs could fit into the future of end-user programming.