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Comment by leothekim | Hacker News Reader

"Unix compilers are slow. So to entertain myself while I'm waiting, I can play asteroids! You see? Compiler errors print out even while asteroids is running!" (2:05)

This was pretty revolutionary at the time, but for some reason those lines made me crack up. Also:

"Is graphics good for anything other than playing games?" (2:19)

The question sounded sort of facetious then as it does now, but for different reasons.

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I love that line about playing asteroids.

I was also entertained by the line towards the end of video: "I've always been able to think about multiple things at once but the terminal held me back."

It seems like we all very much doubt that was ever true now.

If in your last line you mean "Everyone works in terminal emulators all the time", that's not what he was going for. The intent of the statement you quote was that previous terminal hardware, such as the VT-100, gives you access to exactly one program at a time. GNU Screen was not to be invented until 1987, and I have not heard of any earlier terminal multiplexer.

Sorry that was unclear. I was referring to the modern backlash against multitasking. Specifically, I'm sure that I can't think productively about more than one thing at a time.

There's no question that this system was a technological achievement though and that having access to more than one running program at a time is a good thing.

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