Thomas E. Dickey website: creator of dialog, lynx, diffstats, and other utils | Hacker News Reader

Thomas E. Dickey website: creator of dialog, lynx, diffstats, and other utils

invisible-island.net

65 pointsfibo13 comments

I always respect the choice to prioritize readability over flashy gimmicks, and this site is a perfect example of that mentality, imo.

From a quick glance I know who he is, what he does, and how to contact him. Great!

I found this to be interesting. http://invisible-island.net/personal/oldprogs.html

I agree, and also enjoyed this page, http://invisible-island.net/personal/not-anonymous.html

> respect the choice to prioritize readability

Well, sorta: http://invisible-island.net/lynx/lynx.html

I cite Dickey's site often in documentation regarding terminal programming.

I enjoyed learning about curses history and ESR being a dick http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html

That's really remarkable.

ed: I admit this isn't the most, like, informative comment, but I don't see why it was downvoted.

It's always remarkable finding new ways in which Eric Raymond is an ass.

That whole thread stands in stark contrast to ESR's recent "I'm more reasonable and responsible than RMS" narrative.

More delightful than remarkable -- Remarkable suggests something unexpected. ; )

That whole ncurses licensing thread is fantastic -- it takes a while to pick up steam, but around a quarter of the way down we start getting some gorgeously understated quotes to soak in.

Of Zeyd:

    ... but he was still ~30k of diffs away from my version -- and his wouldn't
    work, because some of the diffs were pieces of bugs.  So I told him there
    was no point in discussing it until he got in sync - I assume he's sulking.

Of Eric:

    He also demanded a copy of my bug-list, which I declined.

    I did send Eric a copy of my bug list some time ago -- he responded with
    several patches that made the list longer by introducing more bugs -- so
    I'm rather reluctant to add to my overhead.

tl dr?

Dickey's an unsung hero really. I've been impressed and grateful that he keeps old programs like xterm (in particularly) relevant.

He has contributed to and helped maintain some really cool projects. However, the title of this post is misleading. He is not the creator of dialog or lynx.

I like how xterm doesn't even make the headline.

he has wonderful taste in his choice of projects.

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