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Wording tweak from 'we believe' to question

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Frank Noirot
2021-07-06 10:19:33 -04:00
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@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ I'm helping CadHub out by designing the interfaces for the [new editor](https://
## Why GUIs aren't enough anymore
As others like [Jessie Frazelle](https://medium.com/embedded-ventures/mechanical-cad-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow-981cef7e06b1) have pointed out, the history of CAD software has been focused primarily on using software to emulate the frictionless user experiences of sketching and modelling by hand. That paradigm lead most of the major tools to build GUI-based systems, because the GUI offered a interface that could be understood by most people. We believe that this assumption about users has fundamentally changed.
As others like [Jessie Frazelle](https://medium.com/embedded-ventures/mechanical-cad-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow-981cef7e06b1) have pointed out, the history of CAD software has been focused primarily on using software to emulate the frictionless user experiences of sketching and modelling by hand. That paradigm lead most of the major tools to build GUI-based systems, as they correctly assumed at the the time that the GUI offered an interface that could be understood by people in the industry. Decades have passed and the same assumption still forms the foundation of the paradigm, but could these assumptions have fundamentally changed?
<Image img={ivanSutherland} alt="Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad program from the 1960's, a man using a pen-like tool on a screen to manipulate a 2D model, considered the first CAD program." className="mb-8 bg-contain rounded-md overflow-hidden max-w-lg mx-auto" />
It's hard to understate how much of a change that web development has brought to technical culture. In the past decade the web technologies of HTML, CSS, and especially JavaScript have trained a large part of technical workers to think not in terms of software packages, but in terms of the technologies and languages that are used to construct them, because as a culture we have become accustomed to the idea that there is always an API powering whatever tool we're using. Technical users of course still want seamless GUI user experiences on platforms, but increasingly they also want the ability to get under the hood and use the APIs that power whatever tool or platform they're on. This trend is evident in the rise of API-first services like [Stripe](https://stripe.com) and monolith-fracturing trends like [JAMstack web development](https://jamstack.org).
It's hard to understate how much of a sea change web development has brought to technical culture. In the past decade the web technologies of HTML, CSS, and especially JavaScript have trained a large part of technical workers to think not in terms of software packages, but in terms of the technologies and languages that are used to construct them, because as a culture we have become accustomed to the idea that there is always an API powering whatever tool we're using. Technical users of course still want seamless GUI user experiences on platforms, but increasingly they also want the ability to get under the hood and use the APIs that power whatever tool or platform they're on. This trend is evident in the rise of API-first services like [Stripe](https://stripe.com) and monolith-fracturing trends like [JAMstack web development](https://jamstack.org).
With Code-CAD, we are putting a spotlight on this sea change in user expectations, and putting out a call to action for people to start creating experiences for this web-native, language-comfortable audience of CAD users. With CadHub, we're building a showcase for the great Code-CAD packages like [CadQuery](https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) and [OpenSCAD](https://openscad.org/) that have been under development by early adopters for years.