Most documentation sucks - Example: I like Free Pascal/Lazarus, it has much to recommend it, except the documentation sucks, it's an anti-feature. Many functions are documented with a list of arguments, and that's about it... not what those arguments should be, nor examples of usage, etc. The same is true for many languages and libraries. It's part of the reason LLM coding engines enhance productivity (by helping you get around this defect)
Null terminated strings - Really... it's 2025... can't we kill that off already?
Breaking changes to languages/libraries -- Python really caused a ton of unnecessary grief with the breaking changes to strings in their rush to force Unicode into places it didn't belong.
Ambient Authority Operating Systems - Why do I have to trust all of my programs with all of my user privileges? I don't do that in other areas of life... I don't hand over my wallet to buy an ice cream cone. I don't wire everything directly into the 220 feed into my house. Why can't we just use an OS that supports power boxes (dialog boxes for file operations, that enforce the choice, instead of leaving it up to good faith in the application)
Internet "Access" instead of full connectivity - Why are we still forced to "access" the internet, instead of just running our own machines? (If we had better OSs, we could do that safely).
Memex - It's been 80 years... a full human lifespan... and we still don't have a working Memex. We should be able to surf the net, and then recall (offline!) and recreate anything we've seen, link it into our own narratives, and then spool off a copy for our friends.
HTML - HTML is not a language for the markup (annotation) of hypertext. You can't add a separate new layer to an existing resource without copying or editing it. HTML is part of why we still don't have Memex. (That and copyright insanity)
Null terminated strings - Really... it's 2025... can't we kill that off already?
Breaking changes to languages/libraries -- Python really caused a ton of unnecessary grief with the breaking changes to strings in their rush to force Unicode into places it didn't belong.
Ambient Authority Operating Systems - Why do I have to trust all of my programs with all of my user privileges? I don't do that in other areas of life... I don't hand over my wallet to buy an ice cream cone. I don't wire everything directly into the 220 feed into my house. Why can't we just use an OS that supports power boxes (dialog boxes for file operations, that enforce the choice, instead of leaving it up to good faith in the application)
Internet "Access" instead of full connectivity - Why are we still forced to "access" the internet, instead of just running our own machines? (If we had better OSs, we could do that safely).
Memex - It's been 80 years... a full human lifespan... and we still don't have a working Memex. We should be able to surf the net, and then recall (offline!) and recreate anything we've seen, link it into our own narratives, and then spool off a copy for our friends.
HTML - HTML is not a language for the markup (annotation) of hypertext. You can't add a separate new layer to an existing resource without copying or editing it. HTML is part of why we still don't have Memex. (That and copyright insanity)