Editing 1579: Tech Loops

{{comic
| number    = 1579
| date      = September 18, 2015
| title     = Tech Loops
| image     = tech_loops.png
| titletext = And when I think about it, a lot of "things I want to do" are just learning about and discussing new tools for tinkering with the chain.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First attempt, typed quickly and probably dirtily}}

This comic is about how technically oriented people find more and more complex tools to solve simple problems, which is frustrating.

Usually, people who have used computers in the 1980s and 1990s feel that current tools are very powerful, but aimed at the wrong targets. A real life example of this can be someone who finds the Android keyboard lacks non-English characters, so this person thinks about programming a new keyboard app adding a few keys for characters used often in another language. This user tries to find simple example of Android programs to start learning the basics, and finds surprisingly that the "simple" application in Android is one that finds the GPS coordinates of the current position, searches for nearby gas stations and presents the user with a map for those gas stations.
This would be considered really, really difficult for traditional programming, especially if compared to the relatively simple task of presenting a keyboard on screen.

The section where "VM" and "Chat Client" are listed is likely a reference to 1305: Undocumented Feature

So, in the comic [[Randall]] finds that the things he wishes to do with his computer (maybe presenting a simple keyboard on screen or performing some simple calculations) can't be done easily, however there are plenty of libraries and tools for other, much more complex, tasks, which in some cases could be related to what he is trying to do but in any event are far too complex to learn and not well suited for the simple goal in his mind.

This is similar to a traditional joke which can be found on [http://www.pfccheatsheet.com/fnpgmr90.htm this link].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}