Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!paperboy!hsdndev!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Ware Ware Wizardjin
Message-ID: <15851@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 16 Apr 91 02:30:12 GMT
References: <25649@hydra.gatech.EDU> <71242@brunix.UUCP> <1991Apr13.101654.21974@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 33

In article <1991Apr13.101654.21974@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu> mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse) writes:
>Partially, but there's also an unrealistic expectation.  Nobody expects
>to go driving without knowing how to drive.  When someone uses (say) a
>pain sprayer without knowing how it works and how to use it, and (say)
>manages to explode a pressurized container of paint all over
>everything, everybody says "why didn't you learn how to use it", not
>"paint sprayers should be novice-friendly".

Actually there is an alarming trend toward making manufacturers
liable for all product misuse.  For example, I've seen lawn mowers
labeled with warnings not to stick one's feet into the blade area,
in a feeble attempt to stave off lawsuits from stupid people (or their
estates).  In DC recently a law was passed to hold gun manufacturers
liable for the consequences of misuse of their products.  (Fortunately
important membrs of the US Congress told the DC administration that
they were about to lose their appropriations if that law was left on
the books.)

>Why should computers be any different?

Well, we were hoping that with computers we could emphasize the logical.

>Unfortunately the North American school system
>appears to be actively designed to kill curiosity and love of learning;

There is certainly something fundamentally wrong with US public education,
probably the very notion that it should be a governmental function.

>I prefer to teach the person with the problem how to deal with it
>without help

Right, but inefficient if postponed until after the usage problems
have already started to arise.