Naomi Eigner Price

Software rant
August 22, 2006

What drove workers crazy before new versions of software came along? Did the caveman miss bagging dinner because his version 2.0 club didn’t process signals like the old one? What is the attraction that makes us want the newest, shiniest version of every tool? Well, really, the newness and shininess of it, of course.

New software seems like such a good idea—in theory, anyway. "It's new, they must have fixed all those pesky problems, right?" But learning the new names for the same old commands can get frustrating—especially on deadline. It is at times like this that I recall what it was like making magazines on a phototypesetter<HTTP: Phototypesetting wiki en.wikipedia.org>. Back in the 1980s, Compugraphic and Itek typesetters did the job just fine. They only held four fonts at a time, so four fonts were all you used. There was no need to buy a desk—the machine was a desk. WYSIWYG displays were a thing of the future, you did it right the first time because to do it a second time meant starting again. I once used a typesetter that stored files on cassette tapes. The tapes had better be labeled well, otherwise the only way to find a stored job was to roll through each and every cassette.

I once got into an argument with a man in a bar because he predicted that desktop machines would make dedicated typesetters obsolete. I told him he was crazy, "Desktop programs can never compete with the quality and versatility of typesetting machines." If I met him again today, I'd have to admit defeat. Would I go back to making magazines on a Compugraphic? No. I'll be the first to admit that I thoroughly enjoy all the latest and greatest bells and whistles. But sometimes I do want to grab that caveman's 1.0 club and take a swing at my shiny, new, amazingly frustrating software.

Posted by Naomi Eigner Price on August 22, 2006 | Comments (0)