From: bcoleman@hayes.com (Bill Coleman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: CLI versus Visual Interface, timing considerations
Date: 15 Oct 92 18:48:57 EDT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

In article <1992Oct14.191227.4217@nwnexus.WA.COM>, kanefsky@halcyon.com (Steve Kanefsky) writes:
> In article <6206.2adaf73d@hayes.com> bcoleman@hayes.com (Bill Coleman) writes:
>>
>>The computer response might be measured in microseconds (perhaps a few
>>dozen milliseconds, but the human recognition of that response takes a lot
>>longer, particularly if you don't know exactly what to expect. Indeed, if
>>you get an unexpected response, then you sit dumbfounded for a moment trying
>>to get a handle on the situation.
>>
>>Of course, all this mental activity distorts your perception of time. It
>>doesn't seem to take long, but it eats up enormous amounts of real time.
> 
> Actually, I would argue that *perceived* response time is at least as
> important as *actual* response time.  

Agreed. That's part of why the Mac has keyboard shortcuts. And people like
me use them. (I like them)

But I won't go around with disillusioned ideas, like "I use them because
they are faster." I really don't know if they are faster. I use them because
I find them convienient. Especially when I can select with the mouse in
my right hand, and they copy and paste with my left.

(Today I was editing in a Windows editor. It was damned annoying to have to
move my right hand off the mouse to hold the Ins key for Copy and Paste. Not
to mention the confusion between holding Ctrl or Shift to get the right 
operation. The menus probably wouldn't have helped, since they are in a window
and represent a small target. Grrr. And then there's the lousy optical mouse.
But, I digress...)

> If the perceived response time is too long, the user can quickly become 
> fatigued and overall efficiency can go down.  In fact, it's possible that 
> the extra mental effort involved in composing command lines keeps you 
> on your mental toes, so to speak, and helps you perform better in tasks 
> which really require a lot of mental effort.  

Ha ha ha! That was a good one! And the next thing you tell me is that 
having lots of do-nothing busywork makes me more productive!

That extra mental effort DISTRACTS you from your real work. If your work
is so dull that you can affort this extra effort (indeed, encourage it),
then perhaps you are doing something that is best automated entirely.

> Personally, I prefer to be mentally stimulated, and I get a thrill when 
> I come up with a really good command line or script.

Steve, your work must be pretty dull. I find it hard enough to keep up with
what I'm supposed to do. I find having to cook up command lines and 
scripts to be annoying.

Sometimes I do it. Sometimes it is worth it. I wrote a script in MPW called
"StripLoad" not too long ago. It strips out the $LOAD directives from
Pascal source code. For some historical reason this directive was still in
our code, even though MPW 3.0 did away with it years ago. It was a pain,
but it sure made fast work of removing those directives.

> That thrill keeps me motivated and improves my performance a heck of a
> lot more than some incremental gain in the time it takes to execute the
> command with a CLI vs a GUI.  Of course, the opposite may be true for
> some people.  If you personally like using a GUI and hate the CLI, the
> fact that you're not enjoying yourself is the thing that's really going
> to affect your performance.

Just clip the last part, "if you're not enjoying yourself, that's really
going to affect your performance." Amen.

Are we having fun yet?

-- 
Bill Coleman, AA4LR                ! CIS: 76067,2327    AppleLink: D1958
Principal Software Engineer        ! Packet Radio: AA4LR @ W4QO
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. ! UUCP: uunet!hayes!bcoleman
POB 105203 Atlanta, GA 30348 USA   ! Internet: bcoleman%hayes@uunet.uu.net
Disclaimer: "My employer doesn't pay me to have opinions."
Quote: "The same light shines on vineyards that makes deserts." -Steve Hackett.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy