From: bcoleman@hayes.com (Bill Coleman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: My "Create a system that a fool can use" posting
Date: 20 Dec 92 21:37:11 EDT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

In article <1g398qINN8mj@almaak.usc.edu>, ajayshah@almaak.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:
> 
> As far as I'm concerned, all GUI systems are alike -- easy to start
> using, hard to get real work done; roughly pitched at the intellectual
> level of high school graduates, not even faintly adequate for me.

I guess we should reserve the computer-interface torture chamber for
people of your caliber. <grin>

> Between Windows and the Mac, I think the Mac has a edge on simplicity,
> and of course Microsoft is Evil and worth avoiding in it's own right.

Amen

> An analogy I mentioned in email to someone was a point and shoot
> camera vs. a SLR.  "The masses" love point and shoot cameras (the
> masses love GUIs too).  You pick them up, snap away, and you get
> "pictures".
> 
> I, for one, would much prefer paying the pains of learning how to use
> a SLR, and then getting incredibly superior pictures.  (Where I stand,
> I'd do a better job with a P&S than the "masses" too, but thats a moot
> point).  

Interesting point, but I'm afraid the analogy breaks down with respect to
computers.

First of all, giving someone an SLR doesn't make him a good photographer.
But a good photographer can take good pictures even with an instant camera.

Today, there's no real difference with SLR cameras -- most are so automatic as
to be simpler to use than an instant camera. Often the high-end units are so
loaded with sophisticated features as to be nearly unusable (even by experts).
(Indeed, many "expert" photographers don't have much use for a lot of the
frufru that populates many SLR cameras today)

But, what does this have to do with computers? Instant cameras accept certain
limitations to make them easy to use. There's nothing about visual interfaces
that imposes any limitations over other interface types.

> It boils down to investing in superior skills over a long
> horizon, and not settling for a quick fix.  GUIs are a quick fix,
> which barely scratch the power of computers.  I crave for more.

Perhaps you've just used the wrong interfaces then. The Mac has more
capabilities than I have hope of ever mastering completely.

> IMHO the real contendor to reckon with when we talk about Power, or
> work done per unit keystroke, is Unix.  I mean the real Unix -- shell
> prompt and /bin tools -- without any pretty clothes.  That is the
> most awesome system I can find on this planet :-)   

Yucko.

(As for work done per unit keystroke -- I might suggest any GA program on
the Mac. Most work is done with the mouse, no the keyboard)

> Now if some people
> take more than a few weeks to learn Unix, that is their problem.  

Wrong. It is Unix's problem.

> And
> if others are unwilling to spend a few weeks learning a new system, too
> bad for them.  After all, we do live in a world where "the masses" prefer
> point and shoot cameras.

But that doesn't mean we can't make computers as easy to use as point and
shoot cameras.

Indeed, SLR cameras have become much more popular since they evolved to
the "point and shoot" level of technology.

-- 
Bill Coleman, AA4LR                ! CIS: 76067,2327    AppleLink: D1958
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Disclaimer: "My employer doesn't pay me to have opinions."
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