Randomness Redux
Just a few more random thoughts about life, software, and KDE.
* So I finally submitted my application for UPOU two weeks ago and got their “received your application” e-mail the other day. Now comes the agonizing wait for news whether I get accepted or not. They said they’ll probably have the partial list in the website by the end of March or in April, but I still have to wait for an official parcel before I can enroll.
* My writeup about Dispel, the spell remover part of Sorcery, Source Mage’s powerful BASH-based package manager, is up. With fancy charts! 
* Last year I had this plan to write about some of my favorite KDE 3 apps, focusing on how to use them and/or special features that make them wonderful. Procrastinator that I am, I let the idea sleep for a while. And now KDE 4 is here with a brand new set of amazing apps. Aaron has started his own series about falling in love all over again with these apps. So I’m kinda indecisive (no surprise there) whether such writeups about KDE 3 apps are still worthwhile.
* I’m currently in the middle of *trying* (and probably failing miserably) implementing a feature request for Konversation, under the watchful guidance of Eike. It’s my first real attempt at creating (not just copying) a feature in a real-world application. This is me, straight from the pampered world of C++ in books (more on that some other time). The process of trying to figure out how things work, (which, in my work process, is an essential part of figuring out where and how to insert a new feature) is exhilarating, adrenaline-pumping, and frustrating all at once. It’s fun *and* annoying. And I like it! Yeah, I’m crazy that way. 
* I was able to buy a book on user interface design, “About Face” (first edition) by Alan Cooper. I think it was a pioneer book in the field of UI Design, dating back 1995. I didn’t expect much from the book at first being old and from “the father of Visual Basic”, but it actually turns out to be very nice and not so Windows-glorifying as I thought it would be. I also learned later that he’s one of the big names in the field of usability. I guess what really made me happy about the book (so far) is that it’s probably the first book I’ve seen where someone is advocating User Interface Design as a discipline/field, a subset of Software Design and distinct from Usability. I’m not sure if that ever came about or whether it is really distinct from Usability as a field. And I think Alan Cooper moved from emphasis on “User Interface Design” to “Interaction Design” in the most recent edition of About Face. As a side note, it’s quite amusing to see how some of his suggestions have been or are being implemented in KDE (or almost everywhere) today.
