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Screwdriver Narrowness Considered Harmful
Merlin Also | Oct 26 2005
Something I actually think about a lot just popped out in an email to an internet acquaintance who makes Mac software Quote: One thing to know about me (and probably a surprisingly large number of your customers and potential customers): there's very little mutual exclusivity in my software world. For example, I use TextEdit, Vim, and TextMate pretty much every day and for completely different things. To me it's like having several screwdrivers. I could be that guy who insists there's only One True and Good Screwdriver, but I prefer to keep them all handy and just grab the one I need for the job. Does that make any sense? I mean I hear these territorial pissing matches on `foo tool` vs. `bar tool`, and how the fate of the world turns on making the right decision one time, and then becoming some kind of viral evangelist. Meh. There's stuff like Quicksilver and OS X in general where you inherently have to choose a platform. But what about text editors, graphics apps--jeez, even _notebooks_? Am I the only one who employs a stable of several different tools for a certain kind of task? Esp. where one is clearly better at one portion of the task than the others? How about you? 23 Comments
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 I tend to use multiple...Submitted by shivalemur on October 27, 2005 - 7:19am.
I tend to use multiple tools just because I have to work with different operating systems - Linux, Windows, and OSX - depending on where I am and whose computer I'm using. This is when text and HTML files really come into their own. There's a lot of great database-style programs under Windows - hierarchical note takers, to-do lists, calendars, music collection managers etc etc - that I've enjoyed using. However, virtually all of them have used their own file formats. Another benefit of HTML and text files - they can be accessed via an ordinary web browser. I can't always guarantee I'll be on a computer with an office suite, PDF/PS reader, etc, but every system has a browser. Not so good for editing, but great if you just need to refer to something. Anyone else use multiple web-based tools? Provided you have a net connection, you can't really get much more portable :) I find standard stuff like Backpack, Google reader, del.icio.us, Gmail and Flickr really useful. » POSTED IN:
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