Someday within the winter of 2020, I learn Dan Luu’s article on latency.
“I’ve had this nagging feeling that the computer systems I exploit immediately really feel slower than the computer systems I used as a child.”
So he measured totally different computer systems utilizing a high-speed digicam & he discovered a contemporary Macbook had about 3x the latency of an Apple 2e, a pc from 1983.
Dan wrote a subsequent put up on terminal latency : the quickest software in your pc is probably going the terminal or the command immediate.
These posts impressed me to learn to use the terminal : mutt for e mail, neovim for taking notes, ripgrep for looking a pc; sed for textual content alternative; there are hundreds – possibly tens of hundreds.
Two years later, right here’s what I’ve realized :
First, it’s true. The terminal leaves the browser gasping for breath. Terminal latency tops out within the tens of milliseconds in comparison with the everyday net web page, which dawdles for 10 seconds to load the typical net web page – 100x slower. The pc waits for me, not the opposite approach round.
Second, lots of the UI affordances of contemporary apps hint their lineage to the command line. Create a file with neovim, write the title of one other file, sort the letters gf along with your cursor over the file & you’ll be transported to it, similar to that. No want for a flowery notetaking app.
Third, I work quicker now as a result of I can do many issues from a single display. Once I take notes throughout pitch conferences, I set off actions with perform keys (by no means used these earlier than!). F2 opens the startup’s web site in a browser. F3 searches LinkedIn for the founder. F4 pastes a questions template. F5 reveals me the listing of workers who subscribe to this weblog.
Fourth, I can chain issues collectively. I can save a to-do whereas writing an e mail with out leaving my e mail. I pull up notes from a pitch assembly, create a brand new entry in a CRM, or do any of the issues above whereas replying to a founder, with out having to create a brand new tab or swap functions.
As an alternative, all these seconds saved I’ve spent soldiering up daunting studying curves & text-based guide pages – a commerce I’ve been prepared to make however an unappealing journey for many.
Apple’s visible working system & the daybreak of Netscape transmogrified the command line from a wall of textual content right into a canvas so billions of individuals might use a pc with out having to be taught syntax.
Even when visible UIs take a bit extra time load, for most individuals, the expertise is well worth the wait.
