"It is cloudy. You are likely to fly into a grue."

That new version of Flight Simulator must be really good, ’cause Scoble’s got it on the brain.

(I’ll probably pick it up. I said I was lowering my reliance on Microsoft-based stuff, not ditching it outright. But first, there’s Star Wars Galaxies, and I don’t dare touch that until I’ve got my freelance coding work off my plate.)

In a recent blog entry of mine, Getting pragmatic, part 1, I talked about what Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas in The Pragmatic Programmer refer to as “The Power of Plain Text”. Scoble, in response to that part of my entry, writes:

I think I should be able to do more than just plain text on my computer. For instance, I wanna play some Flight Simulator (seen the latest version, it’s freaking awesome).

I wanna use my Tablet to write in ink. That ain’t plain text.

My friend built a system to run a Pistachio factory. That ain’t plain text.

It would appear that our wires are getting crossed. When I speak of plain text, I’m not talking about plain text interfaces, but plain text data formats:

• Flight Simulator’s interface isn’t plain text, but the data files used to describe the “world” in which you fly might be, allowing third-party world-builders — yourself included — to create virtual worlds to fly in, real or imagined.
• Same deal with the tablet — you write in ink, and perhaps your pen-strokes are saved, but the real data is the text that your handwriting represents.
• As for the pistachio factory, the gui may be what the line controller sees, and bits over RS232 might be what the line machines “hear”, but the data — instructions to the line, settings, logs — could be stored as plain text.

That’s what I was talking about.

Hey, if I wanted plain text interfaces, I wouldn’t have paid the “Apple tax” and bought a Powerbook. I would’ve gotten an off-brand notebook, covered it with skateboard stickers and saved myself a lot of dough (and spared myself the trouble of having a life, too).

Of course it would be silly to make Flight Simulator a plain text game, although imagining it is fertile ground for a laugh:

> MAINTAIN COURSE

Your course remains unchanged, but you are approaching the point where you will be "handed off" to the flight control tower at Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. "Good," you think. "I'll annoy them by saying 'over and oot. Stupid Canuckleheads."

The stick feels a little sluggish today; you find yourself constantly arm-wrestling with it as the 737's nose insists on pointing downward. The pedals don't feel right, either. There's a bit of yaw to the right, and the crosswind isn't helping make things any easier.

Airspeed remains constant at 340 knots.

There is an exit to the aft.

There is a stewardess here.

> LOOK STEWARDESS

She's hot.

I’ll elaborate more on plain text and how it serves interoperability later.