From: bcoleman@hayes.com (Bill Coleman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: When is a CLI faster than a GUI?
Date: 29 Sep 92 11:00:12 EDT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

In article <1992Sep28.202604.20391@news.th-darmstadt.de>, wallmann@backus.pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Natuerlich!) writes:
>>>It assumes that users need to go through a
>>>relatively long length of time to remember a command, which is true
>>>for new users, but not experienced ones
>>
>>No, it does not.  Every time someone sits down with a stopwatch
>>and times someone, they find that this is not true.  Regardless of
>>how experienced the user is.
>
> That is complete bullshit!

So, the guys with the stopwatch are lying? Or is there some sort of
temporal distortion in the vicinity of the CLI-driven keyboard?

The above appears to be true. Now, I don't believe it has been directly
studied, but I hypothesize that an experienced CLI user shows a much
larger improvement in speed over a novice CLI user than comparatively
experienced graphic user interface users.

In other words, if you use a visual user interface, where recognition
and not remembering are key, there's less speed improvement with experience.
I believe this stems from the fact that our recognition skills don't
improve as dramatically as our remembering skills.

Since the fundamental remembering skills are still required, even the
experienced CLI user suffers from the burden of recall. This takes time.
Objective time. Subjectively, time flies. This is because the cognitive
load is greater. 

> On the whole taken ALL relevant studies together there is NO clear
> indication that menues are faster. (really, surprising but true)

Have you reviewed ALL the studies possible? I find this amazing, since you
don't even seem to believe a single study measured them as faster.

> Snide remark: The apparent lack of understanding of some  Mac users that
> there is something like proceduralization which allows the user to
> interact (after exercise) with the system using very little 'attention',
> seems to indicate that the Mac GUI is severely lacking in some
> respects.

Explain this to an "ignorant" mac user -- what the heck is "proceduralization."
(I'm pretty sure it isn't in my dictionary)

You are saying that there's some element of a CLI that allows a user to
make use of the computer while practically ignoring it? What might this
be?

Further, I don't see how any such element, if it exists, would make the
Macintosh Interface lacking in any way. It may just have a different way
of the achieving the same (or similar) things.

> Command history                        (mouse macros don't count)

Wrong! AppleEvents (when recorded) make up a detailed command history.

> Command name completion (not filename) (possible, but not implemented)

What the heck is this?

-- 
Bill Coleman, AA4LR                ! CIS: 76067,2327    AppleLink: D1958
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