Old people stuff below:

I guess we're getting to the point where people now say things like "it was developed for TSR-80", where it is more correct to say "for the TSR-80." :)

> The uu module provides uuencode format, an old binary encoding format for email from 1980.

while true, uu was also used extensively in usenet, at least throughout 1997. But as we learn later, noone has touched nntp code in 5 years! and there is no interest in porting nntplib to py3.

> originally introduced for Commodore and Amiga. The format is no longer relevant.

not disagreeing. Just saying "ouch."

> The module only supports AU, AIFF, HCOM, VOC, WAV, and other ancient formats.

Again, not disagreeing, but implies .wav is ancient. It's still in heavy use (they're keeping "wave"). And ancient is hyperbolic and slightly insulting, but I'm just going to let it go as humor in service of persuasoin. It's hard to let go sometimes when these formats provided so much joy and delight in such a pure fashion. Particularly AIFF vs WAV.

AIFF was for Amigas and Macs. Lots of great early techno used that format, while clumsy windows machines used .wav and lagged seriously in music software. Life then was more natural and computers were these shiny, productive boxes of creativity. We sat down at them for an hour at a time and expressed wonderful songs. Then got up and lived life. I don't need to mention that we now spend almost all day and all night inside a computer, at its keyboard or tablet, its screen and increasingly its headphones. Instead of augmenting our lives like a microwave, they "shelter" us.

I know the tools are objectively better now. They're more reliable, more productive and have more features. But I disagree that they provide more of what we actually need as human beings. Thinking like a designer, we need nourishing human experiences, challenges and interactions. We need opportunities to use our bodies physically, to run and cook, and especially to work, play and function together. But our health is objectively decreasing. Suicide is on the rise in several demographics. We're spending more time e-socializing so we eat more fast food. Obesity is on the rise. We can't even put the darn things down to drive.

Traditionally, human functioning meant organizing socially in groups that combined strangers' abilities. It required us to have patience and instruct each other. Increasingly, computers/apps/networks give us all the same concentrated superpowers. Now I can find any recipe I want, but I don't have anyone to cook it with. Our interactions are increasingly mediated, robotizing our communication. All this pausing caused by http-to-sql operations after every mouse click or sentence stilts us. It's almost as if our world is more black and white and lower resolution because we're experiencing so much of it through a densely mediated stack.

I'll also point out that in the old days, a library that supported five formats was a flipping miracle. But time marches on.

Having watched and been part of this whole python and internet phenomenon, experiencing it rise from nowhere and evolve from a neato thing into a mechanized, hyper-official "means of production" this is somewhat emotional for me. Guess I'm just getting old and I'll suck it up, but I just want to write these notes for people who wonder about what life was like before, or forget to wonder.