Richard Kettlewell's personal site at greenend.org.uk has notes on C, Unix programming, and miscellany like the "nipple" interface quote.
HN links it mainly for the page on the quote "the only intuitive interface is the nipple," tracing its unknown origin, and for technical notes like fork.
Which version of RegEx? I've "learned" RegEx two or three times and then switched language/platform and had everything I previously learned no longer work reliably.
You might think I am just talking about Microsoft's quirky implementation but even in the Linux-sphere it isn't consistent see:
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/tech/regexp.html
You take a complex format string which was design to use the fewest characters instead of with clarity in mind, you then have every major application and library diverge on basic support and spec for features, and then you have all of them hack on support for UNICODE in their own unique way.
Regular Expressions likely won't ever die, but I for one would happily switch to an alternative with better readability, UNICODE support from day zero, and fewer niche features to keep things uniform. I'm tired of re-learning RegEx only to have everything I've learned either be forgot or not work the second I app switch.
>The air went out of his presentation after that.
The myth of the intuitive interface[1] continues to plague software design. Currently it takes the form of heatmaps which only tell you what people are familiar with and not what is actually useful. A UI should not be measured by whether it can be learned easily. Good interfaces improve efficiency when used by people who are sufficiently knowledgeable in how to use them. Using a mouse is quicker than typing alone.[2] The perception that mice are slower is because you often see less adept people using them in a hunt-and-click manner.
[1]http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/misc/nipple.html
[2]http://plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/Mouse_vs._Keyboard/index.html
There is no such thing as "intuitive" when it comes to computers. All computer interfaces are different conventions. Now, some conventions are so common and so deeply learned, they seem like intuition. However, suggesting that they are intuition presents a gross misunderstanding of what intuition is.
"The only intuitive interface is the nipple. After that, its all learned." (http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2002/08/nipple.html)
According to http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/tech/smtpreplies.html, SMTP server can give you either a temporary error (452 - Requested action not taken: insufficient system storage) or permanent error (552 - Requested mail action aborted: exceeded storage allocation). Maybe there are some heuristics that are used for this...?
>> Worse, PuTTY doesn't seem to support the keepalive functions that OpenSSH does. I can keep my ssh sessions open all damned day under Linux. Under Windows, if I walk away for lunch or a nap, I have to relog everything when I get back.
Sure it does.
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/sshfwd/tunnel-putty-keepalive.png
If you want insight onto the quote and whre it comes from, see http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/misc/nipple.html (unfortunately the true source is unknown).
It is also worth reading to the end to notice that the person who did most to popularize it amended it after having children.