Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!hsdndev!cmcl2!lanl!jlg
From: jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Computers for users not programmers
Message-ID: <12953@lanl.gov>
Date: 29 Jan 91 19:48:15 GMT
References: <4724@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 34

From article <4724@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, by hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin):
> [...]
> What does happen is that the user is taught that what the guru has put in
> the language, system, etc., is what the computer is capable of.  The user
> is deliberately kept from even finding out the capabilities of the hardware,
> and then the hardware is built in such a way as to make these capabilities
> difficult and expensive.

You have just vehemently agreed with me!  Learning about the hardware
and figuring out how to make better use of it is _one_ of the things
that _is_ worth learning about.  It's all those poorly designed and
fairly week UNIX 'tools' that are hard to learn, hard to use, and don't
do much that's worthwhile that I object to - I don't want to be stuck
using what some 'guru' tells me to use either.

Simple, easy to use, access to the guts of the machine is a worthy
goal for OS design.  I agree wholeheartedly with you on this.  It's
only one of the worthy goals though.  Some people already have excess
capacity on their machines and don't need to push performance any
more.  These people have different goals than you do.  Strangely,
one of the few thing that you have in common are that the UNIX style
of tools hold you both back (for different reasons).

So, the point about designing systems for people instead of training
people for systems is this: systems should be designed to make it
easy to perform those tasks which people want to do.  You want to
engage in 'full contact programming' - so the system be designed to
allow you to do that.  It should _NOT_ be designed to _require_
everyone else to use the machine the way you want to.  Similarly,
other users have different needs and the way they work should not
be forced upon you.  This brings us to the UNIX tools/pipes/shells
crowd: who want to force _their_ way of woring onto _everybody_.

J. Giles