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USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 1 year ago by ooli to c/technology

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[–] MeanEYE 98 points 1 year ago (26 children)

I can bet you it's incompetence. They failed upwards. Sure, protocol is great and universal, but connector is atrocious and it has nothing to do with cost. Few points in favor of this hypothesis:

Plastic inside of the connector was initially black. Why chose hard to see color? Go with something easier to see;
Connector is perfectly rectangular and only distinguishing feature they made hard to see. Don't make ti symmetrical if it's not reversible, basic design principle;
Connector is perfectly rectangular making it difficult to insert. There's a reason why most connectors have rounded corners, they are self-correcting, even TypeC does this;
They made various different connector types but pushed for the only one with these issues. No one ever had doubts how type B or mini B or micro B go in.

[–] Wogi 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Hindsight is 20/20. You're raising every issue with the original USB plug, then proceed to highlight how they addressed these issues going forward.

You're describing inexperience and calling it incompetence.

[–] Fedizen 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

AFAIK the real predecessor to USB was Serial cables and those were an absolute shit show. USB set out to create a more usable interface with a lower profile and cheaper cost. In many ways the minor flaws in USB becoming common gripes is USB becoming a victim of its own success. I don't think they originally set out to become a power charging standard so the frequency at which devices were plugged in increased over time .

[–] Dultas 6 points 1 year ago

At least serial cables weren't symmetric, although just barely. AT and PS/2 cables (or any DIN) were much more of a pain for me to plug in blind.

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