From: danaf@bray1a.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.)
Subject: Re: Dan flipped through an AmigaWorld, and:
Reply-To: danaf@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 19:19:54 GMT



In article <1992Dec13.063021.28547@usl.edu>, das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A) writes: [proving, once and for all, that he is a moron....]

|> In article <1992Dec13.041029.9962@sol.cs.wmich.edu> 22black@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Martin Black) writes:

|> >Exactly!  There is not even one wb 2.0 shot in the entire january 93 issue
|> >of amigaworld.  So what in the world are you talking about?
|> >
|> >But then again we don't have to worry about the workbench too much.
|> >Becuase we have the apps open their private screens.  
|> >Myself I really don't really interact on the wb more than to open shells
|> >and start apps.  All else works in the csh shell and private screens.
|> 
|> Wow, this sort of comment REALLY points out some Amiga inadequecies:

If you say so....

|> 1) Apps have private screens.  This shoots to hell an enforcement of
|> commonality between apps.  What a wild blend of software that designs its
|> own interface.  Woo woo.

Well, private screens are NICE. For one thing, they aren't strictly PRIVATE.
Some will allow you to open ANOTHER public screen, so that you can pop other
things up on top of the app. It's not a lot, yet, but more are joining the
ranks...

Another thing is that [I'm gonna get flamed for this...] you PC people REALLY
don't have a full experience with multitasking yet. If you've ever used an
Amiga or, even better, a UNIX workstation, you know how many apps you will 
often have running at once, and how cluttered things can get. Here at RPI,
the Big Deal (tm) right now is a window manager that allows you to have 
multiple screens! Gee, can you imagine that? They've reinvented an Amiga, yet
they still slam it.

(BTW: no, you CAN'T "just iconify" everything you're not working with at the
moment, When I'm doing a Physics project, and the work is done in Maple, with
an IO window PLUS graph windows, the directions are on the stupid BBN/Slate
word processor they use, and I have 2 UNIX windows open - one taking print
instructions, and the other sending mail to the professor complaining that his
stupid directions are wrong, multiple screens are a BLESSING. I have to refer 
to ALL of that information at once, and de-/re-iconifying things in droves is
NOT an option.)

Number three... I don't have a problem with apps designing their own interfaces,
as long as they comply to the BASIC style guidelines outlined by Commodore. 
Overbearing, complex style guides can be stifling, and the Amiga **IS** the
Computer for the Creative Mind (tm). Remember the original MAC guidelines?

"OK, now, you have to put the File menu here, and it has to have the following
selections, and THIS gadget can only go here...."

It was horrid. 

Yes, there is too much variation in interface style on the Amiga. But there's
too LITTLE on the other machines. The happy medium will be along, RSN.

|> 2) It seems beyond me that Amigaworld, *AMIGA*World, wouldn't have shots of the
|> Workbench.  Think about it.  What a farce that the Amiga GUI is so irrelevant,
|> being some kind of program loader, that it isn't touted.  Sheesh.  You can't

**AMIGA**World should be the last mag to show meaningless screen shots of the
WB. After all, it's a magazine for the Amiga owner! We all have the WB, we've
seen it before. Show us screenshots of the PROGRAMS!

The best features of a GUI, the basic guidelines of good design (you've never
taken a OS class, have you???), is that it should be intuitive and transparent.
Intuition is, in name and in use, very intuitive. It is ALSO shamelessly 
transparent, letting you do almost nothing with it. It's so good at not being
noticed, you don't even know it's there. 

When you're reading directions on how to build a cabinet, do they show a lot of
pictures of the hammer you pound the nails in with? Do you even THINK about
that hammer, aside from picking it up and banging on the nails? The Amiga GUI
is that hammer. It's the tool you use to get things done, not an entity unto
itself. 

Windows and OS/2, on the other hand, are those annoying instructions written 
in 14 different languages [none of them English] that your VCR comes with,
which is why the clock STILL flashes *12:00*.

8)

|> -- 
|> Dan Stephenson                                                das9674@usl.edu  
|> "There once was a Lady from Hyde/who ate some bad apples and died/but while
|> we lamented/the apples fermented/making cider inside her inside!" 
|>                         -Member of the Court, Texas Renaissance Festival  

-- 
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=======Amiuser============Frank R. Dana, Jr.============Doc Ami=======     
--------My opinions rarely reflect those of any sane person,----------
	   living, dead, or undead... that's gonna CHANGE.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy