Comment by 3pac | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 3pac | Hacker News Reader

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I think that MacOS is terrific and keeps getting better.

It's well past time to include Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand and iMovie in the base install image. Also mkv, ogg, opus codecs for QuickTime. I prefer to do as much as I can from the trusted base install. I do not wish to install Homebrew or anything else.

I wish that the base install included a few CLI packages like nmap and bsd-games. Also some public-domain humanities (Snow Leopard included classic paintings) and texts from Project Gutenberg.

Networking needs MAC randomization, plus native OpenVPN and WireGuard support.

There is a new globe symbol on my keyboard which makes me feel like meta-keys are starting to accumulate. That is going in the wrong direction. I do not want a space cadet keyboard. Why did the full-screen command change from Command-F to Globe-F after decades?

iCloud still needs some work. I wish that I could stay logged into iCloud, but disable remote wipe, in case my iCloud account gets hacked.

> Why did the full-screen command change from Command-F to Globe-F after decades?

Urgh, this. I don't use full screen much except for watching videos, but no wonder I felt somewhat frustrated when using newer versions of macOS.

Was it command-F or control-command-f ?

I thought the old one was the latter - and it still seems to work

(Though I admit I am not worry-free when it comes to seeing globe-f)

I forgot Xcode, it should be included, plus all the Dictionary files, considering how much storage is on even the base configurations being sold.

What's the issue with keeping these all free but not installed by default? I haven't used any of those apps in years.

I do not consider logging into iCloud to be part of "finishing setting up" my computer. In fact, I would like more out-of-the-box visibility into the phoning-home that Mac OS X performs.

With Xcode specifically, I think a computer should be immediately programmable, like a BASIC interpreter used to be included. Especially to encourage young people.

Most computing devices include a web browser with a JavaScript interpreter.

However, it isn't easy for beginners to discover or to learn to use.

But... regardless of any improvements to make programming more discoverable and accessible, I don't foresee a resurgence of interest in end-user programming, because:

1) Apps have made end-user programming obsolete (much like web 2.0 eliminating end-user HTML and JavaScript.)

2) Some computer scientists (Matt Welsh, Bertrand Meyer, et al.) predict that programming will go the way of assembly language as AI systems become capable of writing complex programs.

If (2) comes true, we may see a situation where end users provide prompts to AI systems which generate complete custom programs on demand.

>Most computing devices include a web browser with a JavaScript interpreter.

A web browser is not a computer. They are working hard to make it one, but they are just not there yet. /s

I was responding to "a BASIC interpreter used to be included", pointing out that although BASIC may no longer be shipped with every PC, JavaScript usually is.

Your point is well taken though - JavaScript, while arguably more powerful than BASIC in many ways, usually doesn't allow the same low-level hardware access that Microsoft (and other) BASIC implementations once did. Nonetheless it's often possible to write pretty good, full-screen games in JavaScript with sound, 2D and 3D graphics, network capability, and even game controller support.

And while BASIC could call out to assembly language, JavaScript can call out to WASM.

Fwiw, you don’t need iCloud to get Xcode , it’s installable from the website.

Better yet, you don’t even need to do that to get the command line tools. Just do xcode-select —install

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