From: jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy)
Subject: Re: DOS not operating system, film at 11. : -)
Organization: Hamilton College - Clinton, NY
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 00:53:02 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.111219.7319@kub.nl> hoppie@kub.nl (Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers) writes:
>In article <1992Nov14.022950.29092@itsmail1.hamilton.edu> jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy) writes:
>>Of course, I have my own theory about GUI's for the average person. I
>>proceed from the observed fact (in my experience on the average liberal
>>arts college campus) that most people neither need nor really want
>>multitasking.  Most people do one thing, stop, do another, an go back,
>>perhaps, to the first job.  (I'm not suggesting this is the *best* way
>>to computer, only that this is how most real live end-users work). 
>
>Alright, we start over again :-)

Not with me, you don't.  I multi-task all the time and can't live
without it.  It's flexible, safe, crash-free...and it's Windows! With
typo expunged, what I just said above concluded with "I'm not suggesting
this is the *best* way to compute, only that this is how most real live
end-users work."  See, I am not suggesting that multi-tasking is a Bad
Thing at all, only that most people don't use it.  (I had one
breakthrough today from a colleague who finally decided to start using
Windows and now loves the multi-tasking of her old DOS apps, so progress
is a-comin', albeit slowly).
>
>Imagine a user who runs WordPerfect, then decides to look at a
>spreadsheet. Quit WP, enter Lotus, quit Lotus, enter WP again. For
>her/him, this is a natural way to work WITH A ONE-TASK-ONLY COMPUTER!
>(no, no, no, do NOT start a flame about multi tasking versus task
>swapping PLEASE!). Naturally (s)he will continue this way if nobody
>tells her/him that her machine *can* leave one task sitting in the
>background. 

I'm not flaming, but I am asking you to read what I wrote before
responding to something I didn't say.
>
>But I'm absolutely 100% convinced that this is *not* a natural way to
>work as a human being. Ever seen my desk? :-)
>
>And in my experience, most people really are amazed
>at first when confronted with a multi-tasker/swapper and then
>immediately realize "Hey, now *that's* handy" and cannot go back to
>monotasking ever since.

In point of fact, very few people who use computers (there are
non-computer types out there, remember, people who are NOT programmers
and so on, and, in fact, they outnumber the rest of you!) who have
plenty, indeed, an AWFUL LOT of things to do that do not require a
computer and that may not even be made easier with one.  If you work in
an evironment in which people with single-tasking machines just sit back
and twiddle their thumbs while something's printing, then your boss
ain't doing her job.  There are phone calls to make, files to copy,
files to file, meetings to attend, and, of course, coffee breaks to
enjoy.  Funny thing: humanity managed to achieve quite a bit even before
there were pc's of any sort at all.
>
> 
>Jeroen
>
>-- 
>Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers, research engineer at     |  Stop connecting computers;
>Infolab, Tilburg University, The Netherlands    |  start connecting people!

Joe
jmalloy@hamilton.edu

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy