If you're a button, you have one job

https://unsung.aresluna.org/if-youre-a-button-you-have-one-job/

49•nozzlegear•2h ago

Comments

tangenter•1h ago

I don’t remember anyone resigning from Apple because of a particular shade of blue. So maybe they have that going for them idk.

gnabgib•1h ago

Do you remember? Maybe just recall, don't tell me I'm absolutely right https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48787409

tangenter•1h ago

Almost had it. Aw shit I lost it Lou.

kazinator•53m ago

If you're a button, you have one job: to transmit Morse code from the finger to the machine, Morse code representing a complicated POSIX shell command. And also to power down this entire one-button terminal with a 3 second press, power it up on any button press, with a firmware reset if powered up by a 30 second press.

Joker_vD•21m ago

Now I am imagining a typewriter with just two huge round buttons, next to each other horizontally, and a spacebar bellow them:

     *-----*      *-----*
    |       |    |       |
    |   ●   |    |   Ω   |
    |       |    |       |
     *-----*      *-----*
     
      [================]

A press of each round button rotates the typing ball accordingly, pressing the space prints the chosen letter and resets the ball to the neutral state. This whole thing should probably be electric lest you'd have to press the space bar by smashing it with both fists.

kevindamm•14m ago

Now remove the spacebar, combine the two buttons into a single one for "tone" and adapt it to morse code. All the buttons still do only one thing and now there's only one button!

And, you don't have to worry about what to do in the case that someone hits the "rotate ball" button while it's still rotating.

Joker_vD•2m ago

> And, you don't have to worry about what to do in the case that someone hits the "rotate ball" button while it's still rotating.

Eh, it's a pretty trivial problem, comptometers have it figured out more than a hundred years ago.

QuercusMax•50m ago

This is literally the type of thing that caused the THERAC-25 disaster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25). Experienced users hitting keys faster than the app could process them, resulting in safety features being inadvertantly bypassed.

sockbot•49m ago

The real article getting to the point the author is trying to make is this one https://aresluna.org/show-your-hands-honor/

kazinator•45m ago

We like buffering of keystrokes or gestures when the system is completely reliable, exhibits reasonable latency and low jitter in its latency.

projektfu•40m ago

In the Google photos app (Pixel 10) there is no animation, the rotation just happens immediately and there's no button press to buffer.

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Comments

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