

Mental Context Switches Are Evil - lesterbuck
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/06/09/mental-context-switches-are-evil/

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mey
Core Articles referenced. Skip the blog post

<http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000022.html>

<http://snarfed.org/why_i_run_shells_inside_emacs>

<http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4911.html>

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quanticle
I agree with the premise, but I disagree with the examples provided. I don't
view switching from Javascript client code to Python or C# server code to be a
context switch. What is a context switch is switching to a different type of
task (e.g. looking up documentation, talking to a co-worker, etc.).

Another point is that the cost of the context switch isn't automatically
higher than other costs when programming. Yeah, you might save on a context
switch by running your shell inside emacs. However, that savings may be more
than canceled out by the fact that you have to learn a new environment. In
other words, if you're already very productive with the shell as it is, you
might be better off taking the hit of the context switch, as it'll be less
costly than your lowered productivity from running the shell inside emacs.

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jacques_chester
I know snark is not _au fait_ here at HN, but I am not a fan of John D Cook.

His basic method is to confirm some common wisdom, maybe with a handful of
anecdotes. No reference to original sources.

For comparison, Jeff Atwood _references his sources_.

~~~
felipeoc
> His basic method is to confirm some common wisdom, maybe with a handful of
> anecdotes.

And I like it.

~~~
jacques_chester
Of course you do. And that's why it gets upvoted.

But you are not enriched by comforting, unverifiable group-think.

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stretchwithme
True, but is not the ability to efficiently switch contexts of value? Won't
that erode if not exercised?

For many, there is little chance that such efforts to reduce context switching
will eliminate the need to.

But some people will end up in the same context all the time and be worse off.
Meaning more people will be upset when someone moves their cheese.

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jpr
Context-switching is slow, yes, but in the first example the cause of evilness
is not context-switching, it's that you must program web apps' client side in
JS.

