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Comment by ethbr0 | Hacker News Reader

This is a simple problem, and there's a simple solution.

Problem: Physical connectors previous encoded information about data/power transfer mode support. When USB C unified the physical connector, that information was lost.

Solution: Mandate visually encoded supported standards on the USB cable in colored ring form, a la resistors.

Make them plastic, so you can snip them off if the aesthetic bothers. But I should be able to reach into a bin of different USB C cables, and determine what each cable can and can't do.

The law here for specifications teams should be: assume the consumer is never going to read your spec. Their ability to use the technology shouldn't be contingent on their doing so.

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> Solution: Mandate visually encoded supported standards on the USB cable in colored ring form, a la resistors.

I agree in principal, but please don't do it with colored rings. Many of us have much more limited color perception due to colorblindness. I recently purchased some 8 cable 1/4" TRS snakes, and the only thing identifying which connector on one side of the snake was connected to a connector on the other side were colored bands--many of which I couldn't tell apart. I ended up pulling out a multimeter to test continuity, and then labeled then with unique glyphs on each end that weren't dependent on color (i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc.).

>please don't do it with colored rings.

You say that but, and I realise it's pedantic, your comment only supports not limiting the identification to only coloured rings.

Coloured rings would be a very good solution for a large percentage of the users. Glyphs will also fail with the blind, maybe with dyslexics.

Or of interest, would you pay more for glyph coded versions? Just pondering if The Market would ever create a solution.

About 10% of the male population has some form of colour blindness, which is a fairly large percentage. Letting the market make decisions only leads to discriminatory practices. Worse, these practices can have an impact upon a person's life. For example: it can, and already does, affect employability.

Also keep in mind features that address a disability can be of benefit to everyone. For example: being able to identify something by shape can be useful to the colour blind, blind, and sighted people.

Consider how much life in the US improved for disabled after the ADA passed. That suggests that market forces weren’t strong enough.

> Physical connectors previous encoded information about data/power transfer mode support. When USB C unified the physical connector, that information was lost.

this is not strictly true, at least for USB. you can use a USB 1.x to connect USB2/3 endpoints, but you will only get 1.x speeds. there were power-only cables that didn't transfer data at all. they are all physically compatible. unless you're familiar with the pin layout, there's no way to distinguish the different flavors of A ports.

And barrel jacks in power land.

But suffice it to say, the situation was simpler / more user-friendly.

USB 3 connectors and ports were pretty much always blue.

> USB 3 connectors and ports were pretty much always blue.

I’ve never seen a blue connector and ports in most laptops are just body coloured like in MacBooks.

It's rather ubiquitous, I'm surprised you haven't seen them. The plastic bits in the USB 3 ports in my motherboard, case, keyboard, _and_ the USB ports built into my monitor arms are all blue. Lower USBs are black. It's not universal, but it is very common.

Aren't those the ports? The ports are blue. I haven't seen a blue connector.

The metal bits aren't, but the plastic inside is.

Ubiquitous outside of Apple ecosystem only though.

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