From: david@cats.ucsc.edu (David Wright)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.x-window
Subject: Re: GUIs Considered Harmful
Date: 12 Sep 92 09:03:45 GMT
Distribution: fj
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz

Date: 11 Sep 1992 04:13:50 GMT
Message-Id: <18p6dvINN46o@darkstar.UCSC.EDU>
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,comp.human-factors,alt.religion.computers,comp.editors


In article <1992Sep9.175024.15430@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Stephen Jonke) writes:

|The other thing (and maybe this is even more important) is that although
|you can pick and choose situations in which an entirely keyboard based
|application will be "faster", you are looking at very miniscule cases.  I
|have found that even though I can type reasonably fast (wpm = ????) I am
|none the less FASTER at getting tasks done on the Macintosh then I am at
|getting them done on keyboard based apps, in an overall sense.

What is a Macintosh? I mean, what is it about that that makes it better?
Is there any difference between excell on a PC and on a Mac? I think
you should distingiush between the difference between GUI and
Character Based interfaces first off.  The point is that unless you
are doing graphics or graphic oriented word processing, then you don't
need a a GUI, and a GUI is less effecient. There is no reason why
an operating system such as a Macintosh or Windows has to be run in
Graphical mode: it just slows things down. For example, Deskview runs
in graphical mode and is quite a good program over Windows.

This has nothing to do with menus and ease of use. You can make
perfectly good character based software with menus, pop dialog boxes,
and mouse compatible.

Second of all, the question is whether an editor should be 1)
Character Based and 2) Have menus and 3) Be dual mode and have no
control or meta keys.

Certainly many people prefer the dual mode of vi, and I am one of
them. I couldn't think of doing it another way. Menus are fine, but it
is better not to rely on them like a crutch. It is better to have some
reference card near your desk to use, or print one of the many ones
they have available on the net.

  When you
|look at the process as a whole, it is not simply typing in and correcting
|minor mistakes along the way (and, incidentally, doing that kind of stuff
|is just as "automatic" and fast anyway), unless, of course, you are a bad
|writer or a super-being program writer that writes stuff which works
|perfectly the first time, every time.  Then there's the fact that mouse
|based apps tend to be less error prone for the user.  The fewer errors
|that occur, the fewer errors that need to be corrected and the less time
|wasted.
|
|It really goes well beyond the individual application level anyway.  The
|Macintosh is an "environment", not just a machine which runs programs.
|The environment is more efficient as well, allowing me to get everything
|done in a much more efficient way.  Everything from installing applications
|and extensions to the OS to opening a file or changing its name.  Apple has
|had a set of excellent user interface guidlines from very early on which helps
|to make applications more consistent.  The environment also helps avoid
|stagnation because of the ease of installing extensions and apps, etc.  The
|fact that Apple gives away upgrades to the system for free doesn't hurt
|either (you can buy it with manuals or FTP or copy it from your dealer or
|another person for free legally and I've yet to need a manual for any
|system upgrade.)
|
|I can not make any claims for or against Windows, as I haven't extensively
|used it.  But I will say that in my limited exposure to it, it doesn't seem
|very good in comparison to the Mac.  So if your only exposure to a window
|environment is Windows (or X-Windows for that matter), I'd suggest that you
|try out a Mac for month or two.  You may be very suprised (I was -- I was a
|Mac/mouse hater until I got the chance to actually use one for an extended
|period of time.)
|
|Steve


-- 
   |^^^^^^|      _______________________________________________________
   |      |      |"There is nothing in the marginal conditions that    | 
   |      |      | distinguish a mountain from a mole hill"            |
   | (o)(o)      O         Kenneth Boulding                            | 
   @      _)    o|_____________________________________________________|  
    |  ____\ o o
    |     /   
   /     \                              All comments  are mine---(David Wright)