From: Chuck.Phillips@FtCollinsCO.NCR.COM (Chuck Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: NT Under SCO Unix
Date: 1 Oct 92 11:42:01 GMT
Organization: NCR Microelectronics, Ft. Collins, CO
In-reply-to: apl@world.std.com's message of 30 Sep 92 10:40:25 GMT

>>>>> On 30 Sep 92 10:40:25 GMT, apl@world.std.com (Anthony P Lawrence) said:
Anthony> Seriously: GUI is too slow (486/33 here).  I repeat: it's too slow!

Hopefully, the "golden" NT release will improve GUI response time.  However
for some tasks, GUI's are inherently slower than text based UI's and more
limited in the contexts to which they can be applied.  (Imagine a word
processor where every word insert was accomplished via menu selection.  :-)
Sometimes a keypad is *the* most productive way to interface with an
application or OS.  I can type arbitrary text productively at 30wpm, but I
can't mouse near that fast.  For the mouse to be worth my time, one mouse
action needs to accomplish what I could type in about 30 keypresses or more.
The keys on a given keyboard are *always* in the same place.  For a heavily
used application, my effective wpm may be much higher than for arbitrary
text.  In contrast, the exact mouse movement (direction and amount of
movement) needed to accomplish a given task varies greatly.  Even if all
menus and requestors appear in the exact same location every time, when you
decide to initiate an action, the arrow could be anywhere on the screen and
the mouse could be anywhere on the pad.  You can't just memorize a fixed
mousing sequence and perform it as quickly as your agility allows.  With a
text interface, you can.  I've worked extensively with three very different
GUI-plus-TextUI OS's over the last 7 years.  In all three cases, I would lose
well over half my productivity if the typed-command interface were removed --
this from someone who only types only 30 wpm -- even though *each* of the OS
vendors' marketing bragged about their GUI and played down text-based
interaction.  (I've only been using MS Windows for a year now, but I still
wind up dropping down to DOS to get vendor-unanticipated tasks done.  This
*isn't* a stab at MS or Windows.  As far as I can tell, the problem is near
universal with GUIs.  I *am* pointing out that Windows is not an exception.)


Anthony> Secondly, a lot of the mouse clicking crapola drives me nuts.
Anthony> Dragging and clicking through 7 layers of menus is not fun.

In my personal experience and observation of other users (I spent some years
in UNIX system administration), GUIs are wonderful to help novices get up to
speed, for experienced users who can't touch type at all, and (obviously) for
graphics applications.  For experienced touch-typing users, not having to
remove your hands from the keyboard is a *major* productivity win.  Also,
having *no* character based interface absolutely eliminates the possibility
of automating vendor-unanticipated tasks more often than not.  Ideally, all
actions could be performed via GUI *or* Text-UI, and the GUI -> TextUI
mapping would be obvious.


Anthony> Other than that, I want a command line and lots of arcane switches,
Anthony> thank you!

I want a command line for automating real work, thank you!  :-)  Also, the
lack of remote windowing/graphics means I'm going to be interfacing with NT
via text a *lot* more than I currently do with X/UNIX.  :-(

	Just my own $0.02,
--
Chuck Phillips  MS440
NCR Microelectronics 			Chuck.Phillips@FtCollinsCO.NCR.COM
2001 Danfield Ct.
Ft. Collins, CO.  80525
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32