Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!psuvax1!psuvm!axn100
From: AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: Mac's Microsoft Word
Message-ID: <91016.190151AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 17 Jan 91 00:01:51 GMT
References: <1991Jan15.031444.5@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
 <1991Jan14.222837.20284@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <662@tronsbox.xei.com>
 <680@tronsbox.xei.com>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 38


>       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.
     Yes I've met these people too, who wouldn't know what to do if they were
  put next to a CLI.

>
>        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.  ;-)
      Eventhough I met people like you mentioned, I still beleive that GUI is
 the greatest thing ever done to computers.  Why, it is forcing developers to
 make standard user interfaces.  A user should not need to learn everything
 about a computer to use that computer.  Yes the filp side to this is that
 it stagnates creativity.  However more users are able to be more productive,
 and they tend to leave the IS department alone, to work on more important
 things.

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