设计与产品robinsloan.com编辑精选
应用可以是一道家常菜
An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)
2020 — 2024，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
Robin Sloan 用“家常菜”类比个人软件：他描述自己为家人做的一个不公开发布、只服务小范围的小应用，并由此说明写程序不必总以产品化、规模化为目标。为自己或亲友的具体需求做一个小工具，就像在家做饭——私密、可改、够用就好。文章鼓励把编程看成一种日常表达，而不是只属于专业开发者或商业公司。
为什么经久不衰：它把软件从“必须成为产品”的叙事里解放出来，让人看到小规模、只为具体人写代码的价值；在平台垄断和 AI 批量生成应用的时代，这个提醒反而更珍贵。
HN 评论精选
用菜谱类比说明程序天然应当可以复制、修改和分享。
你们有些人可能不写程序，但也许会做饭。做饭会用菜谱；从朋友那里拿到菜谱，也会按自己口味改——少放盐、加蘑菇，甚至按自己的水平大改。改完做给朋友吃，朋友喜欢，可能会问你要菜谱；你就把改过的版本抄一份给他。菜谱和程序很像：都是为得到某个结果而执行的一系列步骤。所以对程序做同样的事也很自然：复制给朋友、按自己的需求修改；它在别人那里好用，但你的任务不同，改完后也可能对别人有用。
teddyh查看英文原文
Now, some of you may not ever write computer programs, but perhaps you cook. And if you cook, unless you're really great, you probably use recipes. And, if you use recipes, you've probably had the experience of getting a copy of a recipe from a friend who's sharing it. And you've probably also had the experience — unless you're a total neophyte — of changing a recipe. You know, it says certain things, but you don't have to do exactly that. You can leave out some ingredients. Add some mushrooms, 'cause you like mushrooms. Put in less salt because your doctor said you should cut down on salt — whatever. You can even make bigger changes according to your skill. And if you've made changes in a recipe, and you cook it for your friends, and they like it, one of your friends might say, “Hey, could I have the recipe?” And then, what do you do? You could write down your modified version of the recipe and make a copy for your friend. These are the natural things to do with functionally useful recipes of any kind. Now a recipe is a lot like a computer program. A computer program's a lot like a recipe: a series of steps to be carried out to get some result that you want. So it's just as natural to do those same things with computer programs — hand a copy to your friend. Make changes in it because the job it was written to do isn't exactly what you want. It did a great job for somebody else, but your job is a different job. And after you've changed it, that's likely to be useful for other people. Maybe they have a job to do that's like the job you do. So they ask, “Hey, can I have a copy?” Of course, if you're a nice person, you're going to give a copy. That's the way to be a decent person. — Richard Stallman, 2001 (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.html)
简单工具能让非专业者几小时做出自用应用，第一次编程体验应像写菜谱一样直接可用。
最近我想做几个简单应用，通过 API 请求控制家里用 Raspberry Pi 搭的设备。朋友推荐了拖拽式应用构建器 Thunkable，我惊讶于做东西竟这么简单。几小时就做好所有应用，没有复杂构建流程，直接从网站下载 apk。有人可能看不上它用 Scratch 写代码，但我觉得人们第一次编程就该是这样：写一个简单菜谱，马上得到一个能用的简单程序。
laurieg查看英文原文
Recently I wanted to make a few simple apps that would make api requests and control a few things around my house set up with raspberry pis. A friend recommended me the drag and drop app builder Thunkable[1] and I was blown away by just how easy it was to make something. In a couple of hours I had all the apps I needed. No complicated build process, just download the apk from the site. Some people might turn their noses up at it because it uses scratch for writing the code but I feel this is what people's first experience of coding should be like. Write a simple recipe, get a simple program that they can use straightaway. These that must be an app or a web app to have any relevance to people. [1] https://thunkable.com/
为妻子定制的极具体小工具，不打算分发，正体现“家常菜式”软件。
我为妻子做过类似的事：她喜欢在 Android 上读乙女视觉小说，而游戏设计和盈利方式让“回到某条故事线”很难。我注意到她反复截图手机，问她在做什么——她说喜欢重读故事，所以翻相册来满足。于是我写了一个围绕 adb 的简单封装，给它做了个普通 C# WPF 前端，把点击和自动截图调用传进去。她插上手机、打开应用，就能在 PC 上读视觉小说，截图也保存在 PC 上。我还做了其他处理应用来管理这些文件。有些免费应用能解决很多问题，但没有一个完全合意，很多看起来还很不靠谱。我不打算分发自己写的软件，因为它太针对她的需求；最多可能放到某个地方备份源码，因为她时不时会要求加新功能。
bentcorner查看英文原文
I've done something very similar for my wife: She likes reading otome visual novel games on Android and the game design/monetization strategy means that it's difficult to "go back" to a story line. I noticed her repeatedly screenshotting her phone and asked what she was doing - she said she likes to re-read the stories and so she swipes through her gallery to satisfy this need. So I built a simple wrapper around adb, built a plain C# WPF front end for the wrapper and passed through clicks and automated screenshot calls for her. So she plugs in her phone, fires up the app, and she can read her VNs on her PC and have screenshots saved on the PC for her. I built a variety of other processing apps to solve other needs for managing these files. There were some free-to-download apps that solved a lot of these problems but none in quite the right way, and a lot of them looked fairly sketchy. I don't really have any intention of distributing the software I wrote because it's so specific to her needs, and at best I might throw it up somewhere so I have the source backed up, as every once in awhile she asks for something new to add to this program.
专用商业软件未必优于个人定制的小工具，灵活自用很重要。
“家常菜式”软件这个比喻太妙了。我用过同样的比较来解释我对临时电子表格被领域专用软件取代的不安。新软件常常“更好”，就像餐厅菜比家常菜“更好”，但人们能构建小规模、超灵活、刚好满足自己需求的软件也很棒。
gklitt查看英文原文
"Home-cooked" software is such a lovely analogy. I've used the same comparison to explain my unease about ad-hoc spreadsheets being replaced by domain-specific software [1]. Often the new software is "better" just like restaurant food is "better" than a home-cooked meal, but it's also great when people can build small-scale, super flexible software that works perfectly for just their own needs. 1: https://twitter.com/geoffreylitt/status/1177607448682582016
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