miniblog.

I've written CLI programs, GUIs, websites, but never a smartphone app. I suspect it would be tricky: playing with your WIP app on a laptop doesn't feel the same as loading it on a handset. Have you ever written a smartphone app to scratch an itch? How was it?

Does usability research suffer from historical bias? I've seen papers suggest that old-fashioned buttons with a bezel are better than the modern flat style. That seems reasonable, but I wonder if the effect would be smaller if early GUIs were flat.

A wonderful video from 1995 introducing the Self language. It demonstrates a uniform evaluation model, "direct" programming where you can modify object inheritance live, break apart GUIs and build new ones from methods, and even a cheesy CGI finish! https://youtu.be/Ox5P7QyL774