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“the
forcemacarena is strong with this one, anakin.”I thought this was going to be a version of the penguin of doom copypasta.
The chair OOP posted from
Me when I have to do anything other than copy and paste build, or package manager, commands /s
I have to say that I absolutely love the title this man chose to share his anger.
Nah but the dude has a point
Yeah seriously, I don’t understand why Github can’t just have a dedicated download button. Instead you have to dig through the Readme to find it and it’s in a different place every time.
Absolutely. Github is a TERRIBLE way to publish software or computer files, in much the same way that oatmeal is a terrible bedroom lubricant.
What’s the problem with github and what would you use to publish software or computer files instead?
GitHub Pages lol
Windows store, play store, snap store…many options for software publishing. GitHub should stay as a code repository
Not OP but many Linux project I follow, since they don’t have many resources, publish their releases through Torrent, a seeebox is fairly cheap (something like €10 a month) and could be easily crowdfunded even for a small project, and isn’t a huge expense anyway. And the site could just be a static page, or better yet the magnet link could be aviable on Github for people that want the precompliled binaries instead of the source.
E: did i say something controversial?
Same thing that’s wrong with oatmeal: Nothing, that’s just not what it’s for.
Github and tools like it are designed for codebase versioning. It’s a great tool for developers who have a need to collaborate with others and manage releases/branches. But, it’s really not great for distributing executable apps to end users because it’s not for that. You shouldn’t tell end users to clone a git repo and type make install, because that’s not normally how people manage software.
If possible, the app should be packaged and in a software repository/app store typical of the platform. Chocalatey on Windows (Microsoft has their own Windows Store, but fuck that), Brew on MacOS…if we’re talking about an end-user application for Linux, I’d recommend Flatpak because it’s become the de facto one to rule them all; if you really must host something on your own website right next to a windows .exe I will say go with appimage.
You can get hosting for distributing end user apps, Github has a service called Github Pages for this purpose, for example. But especially in the Linux world, too many creators of little things like to just point you at their git repo and only accept user feedback in the form of pull requests.
“I went to the farmer’s market but they didn’t sell me a complete meal, only all these fucking plants. They think everyone’s a cook, and expect to know cooking, but i’m not and I don’t. Make a fucking meal and give it to me! Stupid fucking smelly farmers” – that’s how that sounds
It’s more like going to a restaurant expecting them to make a recipe but instead they tell you to select this random list of things and then they cook it (like US Mongolian bbq places).
If you know what you’re doing you get a good meal. If not? Ketchup on rice.
Not really, no. There’s a releases section where the developer can upload an exe for example but it’s really not easy to tell that that’s where you need to go if you just want to use the program/script, etc and you’re not a tech savvy person.
So yeah, the UI could be improved on that front.
I know how to do it but I’m not selfish enough to forget how it was the first times. You won’t convince me it’s user friendly
The point, which you missed, is that going to github, a source code hosting service, to look for downloading executables for your specific platform - is like going to a farmer’s market to try and get a ready made meal. You’re at the wrong place, and it’s not meant for you if that’s what you’re looking for.
Github is fairly user friendly, but it’s users are developers.
I’m a developer and I hardly ever compile shit for my personal computer from source. I’d rather use a package manager, sure, but on Windows that’s by far the exception to the rule and if you want regular users to use your app, it needs to be a downloadable EXE.
This. Building a random app from source and tracking down its many dependencies is a massive pain in the ass, doubly so on Windows where you have to jump through a ridiculous number of hoops just to install a C compiler.
This can be true and still irrelevant. It’s a free git repo host. Binaries are not its main purpose and random users complaints don’t matter.
But when consumers get in contact with Github - and they do get in contact at some point - it is to download executables, since a good number of consumer-facing software which isnt on an app store does simply release their executables on github. That twists people’s understanding of what the platform is.
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I don’t agree like I said. It’s a terrible interface (yes for a developer)
That’s on point. They should have a restaurant there at least. Smh. /S
I mean, there is at least one, it’s called the releases page. Maybe what you want to eat hasn’t been prepared there, though. That’s not because they don’t realise people can’t all cook, but because they haven’t done it yet.
Just put a link to the playstore or another store where normal human beings can get the software we are interested in trying or buying /s
I’ll call my guy at Google and tell him to get right on that. I’m sure the my C++ code will run very well on Android. /s
(It looks like this specific application was written in Python, so better, I guess)
Snap store or windows store then. Just put the link and not commands for us to compile and do that evil hacker stuff.
To strain your metaphor, I think what most people are looking for is a sign that says “FOOD COURT THIS WAY ->”
If they just had a prominent link to “download latest stable version” in a consistent place, people wouldn’t be so confused (and devs wouldn’t have to do extra work to try and make it obvious).
The specific repo in question had (and still has) a
USAGEsection.And again, I have to point out that it is a python script, not an executable - it’s not standard, common or expected that python scripts be provided as a standalone executable. What makes you think even if there was a download link the guy would have gone down to find it?
Metaphors aside, the guy who originally posted this literally went on a source code-hosting website that primarily aims at making source sharing easier, yelling that he didn’t want to see said source-code, only an executable for a product that literally does not compile to an executable, did not bother reading the instructions, but instead posted on a public forum, in full arrogance, insulting developers by calling them “SMELLY NERDS”.
I’m astounded that there’s still people defending this guy like that’s a totally normal thing to do.
If you only want to download an executable, GitHub is NOT the best place to look for that. Yes, many developers do provide compiled versions of their code, and yes, it is often very convenient that they do so - but it is neither the intended purpose of GitHub, nor is it required that developers provide one.
But a lot of developers do do exactly that. They not only distribute binaries on their github, it is the only place where they distribute binaries. Github should probably recognize that it is a common use case and accommodate it better.
I’m also sure that a lot of people, like myself, took no notice of what specific package this user was complaining about, and are simply agreeing with the general sentiment that github could make things easier for non-technical users (which would, in turn, make it easier for developers since they would not need to field questions from users about how they download the software).
just go to the releases? yes it’s slightly hidden but that’s because github isn’t supposed to be a way to publish release files, it’s supposed to be a place to host and collaborate on source code.
but so long as the developer handles releases correctly it’s just like 2 clicks to download an executable file…
That’s just malicious compliance. They know they shouldn’t provide easy access because it may increase accountability. It’s silly
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That is funny. Nice troll.
Git gud.
git: 'gud.' is not a git command. See 'git --help'.Does “got clone *” work or anything that would?
You guys realize this was on a joke community, right? Most of the original comments missed it too…
r/github is a joke community?
The original text was not on github.
Saw it on copypasta yesterday. It’s possible this is an old screenshot and I could’ve seen the repost.
EDIT : seems I’m wrong and this is just an old picture.
Good find. I guess this is an old picture.
The post was made 3 days ago. The picture is of this exact post. It’s not exactly old
I took the screenshot before the post was even locked, you can also find a comment by me on that thread.
At this point r/ itself is a joke community.
Yes, I think that most of us realized from some of the self-aware wording that this is a parody. But like many parodies it’s a real trope taken to a silly extreme, so we’re talking about users who fit that trope (including ourselves, sometimes!).
Can someone explain to me why github apparently has bad UX/UI? I always thought the UI has gotten really good over the years.
[Edit] Like there this huge argument in these comments about the release button being all wrong. ??? No clue what people have against it. I thought it was fine? You can use it or not. People link to it if they want it more prominent. Someone explain?
[Edit 2] Also what’s up with the people who are vehemently against uploading bins to GitHub releases. This is literally what github is doing on their own repos. Not trying to say that anyone should feel obligated to release bins (CI/CD is a literal job title). People are releasing software for free because they want to. Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.
Idk I’m gonna stop reading this thread. its driving me crazy.
Around last year or the year before that they changed the placement of that button, never really given much thought about it tbf. Just a minor annoyance.
But yeah it was like in the same top row as the code/issues/pull-requests/wiki pages. Now you can only access it from the code page inside a lateral panel. Before that you could just jump to the releases from the wiki page, as an example.
I find that when you know how to use Github, Github is pretty easy and close to perfect for what it is, a code repository.
I think that most people who stumble across a Github link through a Google search, probably like in the original post, want to treat it like an app store. The read.me is the description, so they can tell it kind of does what they need, but they’re missing a big, green download and install button.
Let’s not look a
giftGit horse in the mouth.FTFY
The next generation of script kiddies is going to be iPad babies. It’ll be interesting to see, since the majority can’t use anything in tech unless it’s an app.
We built computer labs in schools, to teach kids how to use computers. Then we decided computers are ubiquitous enough that we didn’t need computer labs anymore. And now we have an entire generation that doesn’t know how to use computers, because they use their phones and tablets for everything instead.
I wonder who is going to write the apps in the future.
Chatgpt, of course…
Ugh. You’re probably right. Finally all those idiots who come up to me going “I’ve got a great idea for an app” will actually be able to release their great idea :)
I used to be able to say “ideas are easy, work is hard”. Now we won’t be.
I’m yet to hear anyone saying that chatGPT can navigate the complex series of design decisions needed to create a cohesive app (unless of course, it was trained on something exactly the same). Many people report spending an inordinate amount of time rectifying the mistakes these LLMs make. It sounds like a glorified autofill (I haven’t used them yet). I shudder to think about the future of the software ecosystem if an entire generation is trained to rely entirely on them to create code.
LLM is great for writing code in small snippets. I’ve used it for quickly writing batch files, for instance. I couldn’t be bothered to look up how to format something obscure. So I use an LLM like ChatGPT to do the bulk work, then I just double check what it gave me.
I wouldn’t use it for anything over ~100 lines at a time. Just like with long conversations, it will have a tendency to “lose the plot” and start forgetting things that it said early on. Because as things get added to the conversation it has to parse more and more data. So it’ll start to drift off topic as conversations get longer.
It can also be handy for debugging sections of code. Because programming is just a form of language with strict grammar/diction/spelling rules. And a LLM will be really really good at spotting stupid grammar mistakes. It’ll instantly notice your missing semicolon and point it out to you, which can save you a ton of frustration.
Just like with any tool, how well it works is entirely up to the user. It will likely progress to the point of being able to manage longer code eventually. But right now it’s still incredibly useful as long as you accept its limitations and work within them.
I think you’re right at the minute. Whether you’ll be right in the future I’m less certain.
and they’re going to be precisely as nonsensical as those AI articles are
sure, you can get good output from LLMs, but companies are absolutely not going to bother putting in the effort to do so, as not putting in effort is the entire point.
it’s at least nice to know that corporations will enshittify themselves out of existence, while one guy living in a basement will silently release something they poured their soul into and it sells 5 billion copies in the hour
“AI”
People wrote software before there’s was computers for them to grow up with. They’ll be able to develop these skills in university’s, colleges, coding courses or online.
I grew up prior to the app world. My exposure to computing during highschool was word, excel, access and once we used PowerPoint. Nothings changed, people are only taught what the teachers know.
I started from a similar background in school. Learning from books in the library and coding on a sheet of paper. Opportunities to get that in a real computer was hard to come by. Some teachers helped by pitching in to get me a few hours in the school lab. Those who like it start learning well before the resources become available. You don’t need to wait till UG to gain those skills.
That said, how often do you see kids these days using a real general purpose computer suitable for coding? Like a desktop or laptop? Not phones, Chromebooks or tablets. In fact, it’s bewildering these days to see programming tutorials start with a statement saying that you need such a device. It was a given, back in the day. And the other stories here don’t paint a good picture.
It’s probably the same amount as before. More phones and tablets haven’t had a big effect on the amount of general purpose computers. There’s devices today like raspberry pi and Arduino that fill the same niche as older general-purpose computers.
Your assume things are different and must be worse. This is a take old as time. Socrates complained about the youth no longer taking the studies as serious as his generation did. The world would have fallen into complete chaos if it were ever true. It’s the conservative myth that things were better and can only get worse.
These kids accessing websites that tell you that a general purpose computer is needed, would have to rely on textbooks and magazines to get the same information in the past. A much bigger barrier, even identifying which ones you need.
AI for the heavy lifting, some poor overworked freelancer overseas fixes issues and refines, and then maybe, mayyyybe a domestic review team of senior coders for pen/security testing.
!remindme 2030
I saw a tweet that said something like “It’s amazing that somehow we were only able to produce a single generation that knows how to properly use computers” and now it lives rent-free in my head.
It doesn’t kinda feel that way, doesn’t it?
Meh, maybe 10% of a single generation at most know how to use computers. Technically savvy millenials vastly overestimate how technically savvy other millenials are.
Even if it’s just 10% of millennials, that still feels higher than both the older and younger generations. I’m in my 30s and a lot of people I went to school with can at least do basic things on the computer, since we had computer classes in primary (elementary) school and high school.
fr, whenever i open the terminal on my school pc everyone immediately thinks im ‘hacking’
sir that is just how i update my programs
Eegh, even in high school (thirty-something Millennial here) I got that. “Woooaaahh, is that code there?!?” “Uhh… it’s an article? It’s in plain English. You know, your own native language? There’s even a class at this school called that. I know you know this because you were in that class last period. What I’m saying is, I don’t understand how the same language you just read out loud an hour ago suddenly looks like arcana on a computer screen.”
… It’s extra weird because no one ever just happened to go shoulder-surfing when I was actually programming. 🤷
I think there was a golden 20 year era for learning basic computing. If you were a kid somewhere between 1985 and 2005 you had to figure out some slightly more technical things to use a computer. I’m late Gen X and so was exposed early on to the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, but kids working with Windows 3, 95 and 98 would have developed similar skills.
The iMac was the herald of the end.
Genuinely curious: what made you think that? The iMac itself doesn’t really strike me as a “simplified” computer, but I might be missing something.
Meh, lots of Dino gaming, not a lot of computer tinkering as I recollect.
I’m a millenial who does tech support in a school and I see this every day. Older people and young kids generally are pretty clueless about doing anything in a computer.
I always thought the generations after the millennials would use a computer as second nature as they would be born when computers were already everywhere. Instead, they are just as useless as boomers.
But millenials always manage the basics. And learn stuff quick when they have too. I doesn’t matter if it’s a teacher or a janitor. It’s a different mindset.
I am my companies best employee, and am now a manager for the sole reason i know how to concatenate and use find and replace in excel.
I don’t think the percentage for gen X is much lower. But those people simply engaged with a kind of computer technology in their youth that is irrelevant today, and had to keep up with a lot of new things since then.
Every millennial I know, knows how to use a computer.
I graduated high school class of 2005 in a random rural high school in North Carolina. Everyone in my graduating class knows how to navigate a file system, ie knows how to find homework.txt in My Documents/Homework, can type an essay in MS Word and could do a simple invoice or something in Excel. I don’t think they even offered programming classes, and I don’t think I met anyone who took CAD drafting or whatever, not until college.
How else did you get music?
If you mean “point and click” level of proficiency, sure.
I have no idea what level of proficiency you had in mind.
Whenever one of my closest friends (early 30s) needs help it’s like helping my grandparents.
To be fair, there has been a lot of complicated stuff to know/fiddle/find out to compile even a hello world, especially on windows (I guess?).
Skillsets skillsets, when the darn thing needs jre older than the one you have installed or tiger.dll is missing, what do you do … ?
It’s always easy until it isn’t, and todays youth is probably more tech savy than what my peers was back in the nineties.
Skillsets skillsets, when the darn thing needs jre older than the one you have installed or tiger.dll is missing, what do you do … ?
where’s waldo.dll when you need them?
I don’t want to hear that Apple was right. “What’s a computer?” What isn’t these days?
I forgot how much I hated that commercial. And I hate even more that it was ahead of its time.
I forgot that ad and had to look it up. It’s pretentious and annoying as hell.
I also blame Apple and their walled garden approach to software
I have a feeling that the OS in question here is Windows. Not as bad as Apple’s walled garden, but similar results.
I grew up with windows and it’s sloppy implementation of a lot of things is a big reason why I got into computers because it let me fuck around with things under the hood easily. I remember messing around with the registry to do things that you couldn’t edit in the settings guis.
Have you tried Linux or the BSDs? Having spent a lot of time on Linux and Windows, the former feels like a well oiled machine with many fine tuning screws, while the latter feels like a rusted old trunk that needs a crowbar to get anything done.
Of course, Windows being so janky for power user stuff made Linux a lot easier for me to pick up in comparison
A lot of schools have Chromebooks too. You’re not doing any serious business, CAD, Photoshop, or programming there.
ChromeOS has a full Linux VM. Maybe schools disable it though.
TBF, they could probably make the “releases” page more prominent rather than having it buried in all the “code” stuff.
After downloading code from GitHub for years I can still take over a minute finding the file I want to download at times. Now that’s not long, but it’s why I’m there 90% of the time.
If there isnt a link in the readme.md I could be lost for days.
On mobile, they hide the code by default. Though the releases are still hidden underneath the readme.
This is really bad on mobile too. I usually flip to desktop mode to get to releases page quickly.
I’ve been using github for what, 10 years now? And I had no idea there even was a releases page.
If you use it as a developer you don’t care about the releases page. You want to see the code and for latest version you just need the git tags. But I’ve also used it for stuff I just needed to run on my machine as an end-user. And for those you turn to the Releases page. That’s where pre-built binaries go.
But it also depends on the target audience. Some projects, even if meant more as software to run than code to import, still target mainly developers or tech users in general and will not have more than just instructions on how to build them. Others, say a Minecraft launcher, or some console emulator, will target a wider audience and provide a good Releases page with binaries for multiple platforms.
A lot of projects don’t use it or forget to update it for multiple versions so you probably aren’t missing much.
I agree. Whenever I link someone I try to make sure to link directly to the release page.
Worst part is that this used to be a separate tab in the repo navigation. I still cannot conceive of a reason why they would move it from there to some random heading in the middle of the screen, except maybe so they can sell more GitHub trainings.
I think you’re on to something haha
GitHub has bad UX for people who just wanna download and use the programs
I fixed it for them
What about up by the name of the repo? Your suggestion still looks almost reasonable, I like it!
Yeah actually that could work as well. Would be a really easy greasemonkey script
And then just push it to the main branch of GitHub, I’m sure they’ll accept it ;)
I’ve bounced off GitHub more than once trying to figure out how to download the .exe file that I assumed must be somewhere. Honestly I still don’t understand the interface and I’ve submitted bug reports for Jeroba on there. I might have even used GitHub for a project once? Every time I look at it it’s overwhelming and confusing and none of it is self-explanatory. But, that’s fairly true for a lot of stuff in programming.
If there is an exe, it’s under the releases link. On desktop it’s on the right sidebar below “About”. On mobile it’s at the bottom after the readme blurb.
It’s not obvious because the code is the main focus and GitHub would much rather people host their releases somewhere else.
That’s where it is? I’ve been sneaking my way in by clicking
tagsand then thereleasestoggle!And even if releases are hosted on github, there should ideally be a download links page somewhere that presents the different binaries or installation files in an easier to understand format, especially if the software is designed for non-developers.
not only the ux, some devs make it absurdly confusing to find a binary.
I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but there’s this one niche app.
their github releases at one point were YEARS out of date, they only linked to the current version in seemingly random issue reports’ comments. And the current versions were some daily build artefacts you could find in a navigation tree many clicks deep in some unrelated website. And you’d better be savvy enough to download a successfully built artefact too. And even then the downloaded .zip contained all kinds of fluff unnescessary for using the app.
The app worked fine, sure, but actually obtaining it was fairly tricky, tbh.
These build artefacts probably weren’t meant for end users, that’s why they contained the “unnecessary fluff”.
absolutely, but they were in general (IIRC) suggesting them for the main downloads, but just not telling anyone outside the comments, which was the weird part
That’s not really what it’s designed for though
It doesn’t have to be a compromise imo. Most people just need a visible download button on the front pages. Wouldn’t hurt devs at all. I mean, even devs sometimes struggle with this lol.
It doesn’t have to be a compromise
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
Any change to appease you would be a compromise, you understand this, yes?
GitHub has bad UX for a lot of things
The Github UX is amazing if you ever had to use gitlab or bitbucket
I’m not so sure. I seem to be able to find my way around a GitLab project in much fewer moves than a GitHub project. But maybe I’m biased because I use it all the time at work. I know they change the sidebar a lot, though.
It’s not black and white. I actually liked a few things better about bit buckets UI. It’s been too long to remember specifics though I think it was concerning PRs and diffs. I still think GitHubs review UI is too complicated. It took me literally years to fully understand it.
i really enjoy the lack of dark mode and the way it doesn’t work on a tablet
It does actually have a dark mode now! Still not great otherwise.
My bad. It indeed is black and white. There can be no redeeming aspect of bitbucket. Fair point
thank you! now was that so hard?
Comparing bad to bad doesn’t make any of them better lol
I’ve gone nuts trying to download a single file from the git website on my first interactions with it (because somehow adding a download file button when you’re viewing a file on the site is just too much to handle)
The worst part about Bitbucket is the horrible, godawful, practically useless search
I’d agree, but the caveat is that github is primarily about an interface for source control and collaboration between developers for projects. The release page is really just an also-ran in terms of importance.
Imo they aren’t even trying, because it’s not that hard to make it better. Doesn’t even have to be a compromise. Most people just need a visible download button for the programs, that’s all.
SourceForge had a better UX for those who just want to download software.
And SF is horrible, so this says a lot.
There is, it’s literally right there on the home page of the project. You can either copy a URL and download it by cloning the git repo, or you can download the whole project as a zip file. Then you just have to compile it!
GitHub is for developers, not end users.
It’s not a compromise to make another download button for the last release as well. No one looses.
That’s not a download button for the program. But there is indeed a link to the release page right on the home page of the project, so you’re still correct.
If that’s a concern for the project maintainers, they should create a homepage for the project with download links.
Or make a shortcut/link in the readme to the newest release of the most popular OS’s.
A decent release page tends to contain all kinds of files for different OS, so ‘regular’ people who just want the .deb or .exe would likely become confused regardless.
I mean, if you don’t even know what OS you’re on…
Next you’re going to tell me cars need boosters so babies can reach the pedals… At a certain point, it becomes irresponsible to enable ignorance.
Imagine how many download buttons would be if Github had ads.
I swear they move the link to release page every few months.
They purposely hide it, because they don’t wanna tend to normies
Excel has a bad UX for people who want to use it to make art
Do most people who use Excel also make art with it? Because sometimes devs also just download exe files on GitHub :D
They don’t just always copy code from there.
GitHub, Inc. (/ˈɡɪthʌb/[a]) is a developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage and share their code
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub
Yes it has other functions too, but it’s primarily for code.
Do MOST people who use GitHub download .exes? In my experience the VAST majority of people are using it for source and version control, not external releases. The overwhelming majority. FOSS and OSS is a small portion of the overall GitHub user base compared to, say, enterprise companies.
So you never downloaded a program on GitHub?
No one everever said you need to compromise its focus on developers. There is no compromise to be made. It’s just a stupid button. Stop arguing lol.
The github project page is for developers, and Github already gives you tons of ways to make a user website. Don’t ask your users to visit github.com/group/project, make them visit group.github.io/project, like any sane person.
Same with Gitlab, BTW.
And if you don’t like the full static site, use the wiki, or guide your users in the first paragraphs of the README so they find the user information if they must.
you never downloaded a program on GitHub
Precompiled binaries?!? Not even once. It’s a security risk akin to picking up gum on the sidewalk for a fun tasty treat.
So when you just needed software to run on your machinr, you built it yourself. But first read every single line of code to ensure that it’s safe. Did I get that right?
Because if you don’t trust the developer to provide safe binaries then you wouldn’t trust the same developer to provide safe code either.
Cool, I’m not surprised as we are on Lemmy. Welcome to the 1%.
No, you shouldn’t really be downloading exe’s from github. It is widely being used to spread malware and to pretend that the software is open source when it is not. At least look for a link to the store page(including microsoft store), a distro-specific package or build instructions. Those usually have an AV scan or at least harder to fake.
Yeah a dude I know got hacked by downloading some random github program, the hacker even started taunting him via discord lol.
But I downloaded plenty of shit from github, like prusaslicer, my 3d printer’s firmware and plugins for octoprint. Always stuff that is verified via another page though. Almost never stuff that comes up during a random search, and if I do, I look it up first to see if it’s safe.
We’re talking about how to design one of the biggest platforms on the internet. Of course there is a compromise. No one is advocating for removing the button, but arguing that the UI is somehow deficient for people wanting to download binaries is really missing the purpose of GitHub.
It’s an additional feature of GitHub that literally everyone uses. Therefore it has purpose. I think it’s ridiculous to argue against it.
Explain to me how developers or the UI would suffer from easier access to releases?
But if you want to put a some text and pictures in very specific locations and never worry about them suddenly jumping into random places, Excel is actually better than Word. That’s why people tend to use Excel for all sorts of weird purposes like that. Unlike with Word, things actually stay where you put them.
Yes and there are definitely people who use excel for art. Just like there are people who use GitHub for its releases page. It’s just not the primary use of either program.
I’ve seen some of the impressive pixel artworks people have made in Excel. However, I prefer to do Excel art by writing a bunch of wild functions and drawing a stacked line chart from the resulting data. The graph itself is the artwork, while the cells behind it are just a necessary part of the process.
Honestly, releases and the readme could be the first page on their own, you can push the code to another tab as long as the clone button is there. There’s at most a 5% chance I’m just gonna raw dog the code straight from the browser anyways.
TRUE. the first time I used GitHub, the releases tab being all the way at the bottom in the mobile view confused me for a good while
Man these comments are fun. The patricians defending the (admittedly) bad UI/UX as the skill-hurdle it is, while the rest are finding inventive ways to rephrase “gib button plz”
The UI is fine.
It’s just that Github is a code sharing and collaboration platform for developers, not a software package distribution platform for end users.
But it is often additionally used as a software package distribution platform, so it would be helpful for some developers to reach their users by having a clearer path to the most current release.
I can personally do without a special button, and the op is obviously making a joke, but why not improve the UX for some users? It’s certainly possible to do this without impacting the smelly nerds who wouldn’t use the button.
While it may have begun that way (and may still be the overwhelming use case, idk the breakdown) devs are using it for FOSS releases, and that’s where the ‘less literate’ crowd enters. Sourceforge was very simple to use, and had a consistent layout. GitHub wasn’t meat to be a SF replacement, but here we are having this discussion
Plenty of developers also use GitHub for software distribution for end users, so that’s where the problems lie. I’m not saying GitHub should change their UI to match something the site wasn’t made for, but it’s still an issue for people who choose to use it that way.
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The “digital natives” 🙄
Expecting people who grew up after the Internet was mainstream to all be developers is like expecting everyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s to be a mechanic
You can usually find step by step instructions for fixing most cars. My library has a subscription to Chilton online, so I can use it from home and look at repair procedures and wiring diagrams. Just use forums and YouTube to fill in the gaps. I’ve even diagnosed a car from Amazon reviews since I suspected a certain part was bad and looked at reviews that said the exact symptoms.
Sure, a lot of people can do that. A lot of people absolutely can’t, too. A lot of people can look up and solve computer issues too, and a lot of people can’t. It’s not a generational thing or specific to computers.
Car enthusiasts are much more welcoming and helpful than computer experts. Just look at stack exchange.
All this really means is they grew up navigating digital spaces socially. I’ve discovered first hand that the generation at large has little-to-no knowledge of the technical workings of even the computers they use regularly, imo due to the “apple-fication” (one button? Really?) of digital devices. Most exclusively use their cell phone as their digital device, or a chromebook provided by their school, all of which have been streamlined to the extreme to “enhance” the user experience, but have in actuality given them absolutely zero-experience learning how to troubleshoot or incentive to dig into how their devices operate. I’ve had to walk teens through how to navigate the file directories on their laptops.
In the past, the only people to be “techies” (ie people seeking out spaces like the Internet) were ones willing and able to deal with hurdles and issues, and the window is apparently quiet narrow for people who grew up with tech (to an extent) and also had to learn how to handle issues like that. The majority of others are either those described above, or those that never saw tech as important or worth it (though we’re also seeing the consequences of those people finding their way onto the “one-button” internet in meme/conspiracy addicted boomers).
Agreed, Big Tech’s quest for UX and frictionless Interfaces has lead to a generation of people who vastly overestimate their tech savviness and are basically only great at navigating walled gardens made specifically to be easy to use.
It’s not really their fault though: in addition to frontends becoming ever easier to use, backends are also becoming increasingly complex. 20 years ago you could learn a bit of HTML and CSS and throw a decent website together, but nowadays you need to master tons of other skills (graphical design, scripting, etc.) to make even so much as a web page that won’t scare people away immediately. It’s hard to get interested in this stuff when the barrier of entry is getting higher and higher, while tons of GAFAM-made alternative are already available for “free”
Seriously. It’s infuriating. Everything is so damn dumbed down now it’s ridiculous! People are incapable of doing so much as reading error messages and doing basic troubleshooting, sometimes I wonder where society went wrong. They’re completely helpless with the technology that makes up more and more of our lives, and I hate to see it.
20 years ago you could learn a bit of HTML and CSS and throw a decent website together, but nowadays you need to master tons of other skills (graphical design, scripting, etc.) to make even so much as a web page that won’t scare people away immediately
Looking at it this way is what stops people from trying though :(
It’s not really their fault though
Definitely not, and to clarify, I am laying any blame there is to be doled out at the feet of companies.
I do wonder if it’s reversible at this point, though. I don’t see any company choosing to reverse course, at least not in a way that would cause a large-scale shift. Incapable users are the best they could hope for - uninterested in seeking out anything other than what they are handed and, if they ever did decide to look around, unable to adapt to “harsher” alternatives. Legislation certainly isn’t going to be expected. No government is going to mandate citizens have a “worse” experience. Perhaps a purposeful cultural shift, but that would take a lot of coordination of people that likely don’t see the issue or simply don’t care. I feel like we’re past the watershed here, as frustrating and concerning as that is.
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Ragging on older generations though, comedy gold.
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Reddit gold ⁉️⁉️😨😨😨🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
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Fuck off ya racist piece of shit.
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Go neck yaself mate, “ugh I censored my racism so its no longer racist” fucking shit for brains.
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Kindergarten level trolling detected
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As a zoomer myself I can confirm
