From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (steve hix)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: PDA'S are flop
Date: 6 Oct 1992 18:08:21 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: concertina

In article <1aqj7eINN4nu@agate.berkeley.edu> daver@sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (David Ray) writes:
><begin opinion>

Ah! Truth in advertising.

>The idea behind the PDA is that you don't have to re-copy your hand-written
>notes into the computer. That sounds great. 

Sure does...

>It presumes that the only thing
>going on when you are transfering hand-written notes into the computer is
>typing them word-for-word. In fact this is not true. When most intelligent
>students copy their classroom notes into a more legible form they are also
>re-formatting the notes, deciding what to delete, cleaning them up, perhaps
>adding more details from another class or a book, or an after-class discussion.
>Most of the time is spent evaluating how to reorganize it, not typing the
>words.

While all that is true, not having to go through the recopy step is *still*
going to save time: Editing is a lot faster than keying in the initial text,
or handwriting it, for that matter.

You're right, the thinking and editing portion of the task is the 10% of the
work that takes 90% of the time.  Or ought to.

>If I was a student (again) I would not get a PDA because:
>(1)Most of the time spent revising the notes into a legible form is *not* from
>copying them word for word, but from thinking about how to organize the
>material. There just isn't very much time savings

More than you might think.  don't underestimate the transcription effort.

>(2)There were many times such as after-class discussion where information
>went by so quickly I barely had time to rip out a page of paper and pencil
>to jot it down. I couldnt imagine how a PDA could keep up with pencil and paper.

Who takes notes?  (Oops...usually there's time.  Wonder if a PDA could be made
to read shorthand?)

>(3) As mentioned by a previous poster, the PDA can't possibly read my
>scribbling correctly. Only *I* know how to decipher my handwriting. What if
>your only record of an equation was scribbled quickly. On paper you could
>tell it is a "q" because you know your own writing, but the PDA thought it was
>a "g". And suppose you never checked to see if the PDA interpreted your
>writing correctly. 

What do you think spelling checkers were intended for?

For that matter, what do you think makes spell checkers even feasible? (Hint;
it ain't blindly depending on the software to catch your mistakes.)  Engage
brain *first*, then use convenience tools.

>The PDA could cause you to get it all wrong. Or, you have
>to check the PDA's interpretation of what you write every time, which is a
>bigger hassle than pen and paper.

But less than the hassle of re-transcribing hand-written notes.

>(4)The money used on a PDA could be spent elsewhere, like tuition.

That's not disputable.  :}

>(5)It would be the demise of our educational system if people with PDA's
>had an advantage over people without them, because more wealthy people
>who could afford PDA's would have an unfair advantage over people who couldn't
>afford them.

Bullshit!  (Pardon my French.)

It's nothing but a tool (or may be one, currently they're vaporware), and
the tool has no control over the effort expended by the user, or the goodness-
of-fit of the users approach to solving problems.

If your argument was correct, then PC owners would always beat out non-PC
users in all classes that they competed in.  Doesn't happen.  

People said the same thing about electronic calculators, and before that
about slide rules, and before that typewriters, and before that arabic
notation, and before that...

John Steinbeck with paper and pencil could write rings around any number
of hack writers armed with the latest in writing/editing/checking tools
any day of the week, modulo the fact that he's been dead for quite a
while.  But I'll bet that he, and a lot of great writers of the past
would be quite happy to use those same nifty tools, given the chance.

For that matter, maybe the current educational system *should* be
terminated...it don't seem to be working all that well.

>(6)Too fragile for a daypack. I like to be able to throw my pack across a
>room and not worry about what's inside. Leave the computes at home.

Too hard learning to take care of equipment?  You say you have trouble
parking near solid objects?  Sounds like operator error to me.

Nothing personal, of course.

><end opinion>

Me, too.

On the other hand, maybe about 15 years of writing books for a living
has left me unprepared for thinking about using tools in the writing
process.
--
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Of making many books there is no end...  |  What's wrong with chasing 
                       -- Eccl. 12:12    |  nebulae till 3 am?  |-(
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