User:Colm/RWRM-year2-notes-on-comfort

Comfort

It's not the first time I come back to the issues of comforts when trying to unpack my software issues, nor is it the first time I write about it, but in this case, it feels a little different.

Being precise when choosing my thesis is the one piece of advice that has echoed widely, so if comfort was to be the over arching theme, comfort creation would be the second node to go to.

These are only rapid notes, I'll draw on these, I publish these, but it's not a built text atm.

So I think comfort might be the topic I'm interested in fingering because it has this undescribable personal character to it. Comfort is relative. My comforts are not necessarely the same as yours. But probably we can agree on certain comforts.

I can do what I'm about to do without shame, because these are only notes:Searching comfort !w returns in the first line: Comfort (or being comfortable) is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship.

Ok quick formulation of questions:

• can comforts be pointed as reasons for the hardship that can be experienced by a new user when it comes to gaining confidence with computer systems ?
• are there comfort creation / maintenance strategies within current software interface development practices ?
• a certain amount of basic computer interactions seem to have spread across all types of operating systems, distributions and brands. For example, nobody seems to be wanting to be get rid of clicking or scrolling. Are there other interactions that are or have become specific to individual platforms ? Why can these not be cross platform ?

It's comfortable to go to one and only one place to install new apps on your device. It's not comfortable to have to manually compile a source package. One is extremely easy, the other is not. Meanwhile, the first does everything for you, the second needs you to make decisions and understand what is happening for the operation to succeed. What is the relation between ease and knowledge, and what are it's costs ?

Is there a triangle or a Venn diagram that can represent the impossible three (?) of Software comforts, software knowledge and service understanding?

I have not, at this point, finished my text on detailing my position, but in short, as I have progressed from software learner to software practitionner, I have also progressed from software user to software distributor. The points that make one go from learner to practionner are various degrees of mastery. I do not intend to call myself a master of anything, but within all the operations that a piece of software kit offers, some of them can be mastered. Similarly, the points that make one progress from software user to software distributor are ones of service.

Tying together relative mastery and service is the notion of craftsmanship.