haven/GoodThings.adoc

Good things
===========

Windows 95
----------
Most applications followed
https://web.archive.org/web/20200303155748/https://www.ics.uci.edu/~kobsa/courses/ICS104/course-notes/Microsoft_WindowsGuidelines.pdf[design guidelines]
or just used the default controls, giving a
https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win95[unified and simple UI]
that could be reasonably well controlled from the keyboard.

SerenityOS
----------
https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity

// TODO: Include a screenshot.

A project with a much larger scope than Haven but with somewhat similar goals,
to create a nice new environment.  Gives proof that such a project can be
written in few people, given proper experience.

ToaruOS
-------
https://github.com/klange/toaruos

Similarly to SerenityOS, this proves that one can write an entire operating
system from scratch.  Somewhat sadly, it just replicates the Linux desktop
without trying to make any fundamental changes whatsoever.  Still, it makes for
a very interesting data point.

Haiku
-----
Pretty.  Desktop-first.  Just the window manager sucks, and C++ is no longer
a reasonable choice for a high-level programming language, despite all the
effort to improve it--it's the foundations that are rotten.

VIM
---
Customizable modal text editor allowing for rather efficient editing.  While the
internals might not be so great, the user interface is hard to beat once you get
used to it.

With https://github.com/prabirshrestha/vim-lsp/[vim-lsp] it even shines as an
IDE, which is a wonderful development.

Qt Creator
----------
// TODO: Include a screenshot.

Has a very good VIM emulator (rare!), excellent code navigation on top of that,
clean UI.

Primarily a C++ IDE, yet slowly the Language Server Protocol implementation
makes it transcend into a general-purpose one.

Vimperator/Pentadactyl/qutebrowser
----------------------------------
// TODO: Include a screenshot.

Vimperator/Pentadactyl created a new standard in web browser usability.  The
most important innovations being the addition of modality to the web browser and
the "follow link" feature, which is what I feel all mouse-first UIs deserve.

Too bad it can no longer work in current versions of Firefox as they cut off
all support for XUL addons.  The good times are already behind us.  I certainly
enjoyed them.

qutebrowser went somewhat beyond in terms of how neat the integration of a VIM
interface and a web browser engine can be, rebuilding the concept on top of
Webkit, but to this day it lacks a normal AdBlock, and thus remains a toy.

SourceHut
---------
https://sourcehut.org/

Drew might be an opinionated asshole but that's not necessarily a bad quality,
especially if it helps with diversity.  His creations are compatible with my
values.  Except that I hate Python. :)

WikiWikiWeb
-----------
http://wiki.c2.com/

An interesting knowledge base.  Simple formatting, automatic links.  I've
borrowed the general concept for this very wiki (yes, technically you can send
in pull requests).

It's a shame that it's been frozen in time.

AsciiDoc
--------
I utterly despise Markdown for its choices, and I don't want to suffer while
writing:

- you have to escape all underscores in words,
- the link syntax is hard to remember,
- emphasis is screwed-up entirely, asterisks are supposed to mean '`bold`'.

Granted, I can see some faults in AsciiDoc as well, notably with how hard it is
to parse and process, but I haven't found anything better yet, not to mention
powerful, and standardisation seems to finally be
https://groups.google.com/g/asciidoc/c/EKx-Hfx-nMM[on its way].  One day I might
create a processor for a slightly modified subset of it.  Until then,
https://github.com/bytesparadise/libasciidoc[libasciidoc] is what I'll be using
for all markup, and I'm immensely thankful to its authors for their work.

Plan 9, Go
----------
Pervasive simplicity.  Sometimes it's annoying (one could say '`misplaced`')
but overall you get the feeling you have the entire platform under your control.

Oberon OS
---------
An exercise in vertical integration, going as deep down as the CPU.
Also something completely different from what you can find today, exploring
a new way of controlling the computer.

Smalltalk
---------
The application is a live system, powered by a simple programming language.
You can change anything you want, and see the results instantly.  See also the
Self programming language, for which my friend is trying to make an
https://github.com/Bystroushaak/tinySelf[alternative implementation].