Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis
From: dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: Mac's Microsoft Word
Message-ID: <680@tronsbox.xei.com>
Date: 16 Jan 91 06:09:46 GMT
References: <1991Jan15.031444.5@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> <1991Jan14.222837.20284@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <662@tronsbox.xei.com>
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Organization: Romantic Encounters BBS
Lines: 40

In article <662@tronsbox.xei.com> bleys@tronsbox.xei.com (Bill Cavanaugh) writes:
>Why is it that every time someone on the net posts >anything< that even
>LOOKS like they want a user interface that's made for the user, crys of
>"You're not smart enough/You're too lazy to learn to do it the hard way?"
>
>I may be commiting a sacrilege here, but why >should< someone have to
>"learn something about their computer and the workings of computer
>languages" in order to put their thoughts on paper in an attractive and
>effective format?
>
>
>-- 
> *         Bill Cavanaugh       uunet!tronsbox!bleys            *

	Because all the W.I.M.P. interfacing in the world doesn't help.

	I'm quite serious.  One of my best friends is a Mac consultant, and
he's told me some real horror stories, ranging from people whose Macs boot into
an application (usually Omnus) and are scared when they see Finder pop up to
people who call for help when presented with a dialog box with ONE option.

	He'd bought his first Mac back when they first came out (128K ram, 
64K rom, 400K single-sided drive).  The two of us played around with it a lot,
and got involved in the first meetings of a local users group (NJMUG), which
he eventually became president of.  But in those first meetings, they had to
give a class on 'point, click, and drag'.  Most of an evening spent on how to
use the MOUSE, never mind Finder.  To paraphrase Dennis Miller, isn't this 
when the government comes and puts you to sleep?

	I've come to the conclusion that all this GUI stuff was a Bad Idea.
All it has done is put computers in the hands of people who just can't handle
them.  (Then again, I suppose it's not all bad.  It gave my friend a job.  ;-)

	Followups directed to .advocacy, of course.


dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com   ...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis     GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1
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"Using C will definitely cut your life expectancy by 10 years or more."
	-- Carl Sassenrath, GURU'S GUIDE TO THE COMMODORE AMIGA