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From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: file attributes
Message-ID: <16504@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 22 Jun 91 20:50:48 GMT
References: <1991Jun20.085530.24353@prl.dec.com> <1753@sranha.sra.co.jp> <1991Jun22.174141.10152@decuac.dec.com>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 24

In article <1991Jun22.174141.10152@decuac.dec.com> mjr@hussar.dco.dec.com (Marcus J. Ranum) writes:
>PS - As an aside, I realized years ago that GUIs were an utterly stupid idea
>the day when I completed a complex click-drag-drop operation and it asked me
>"are you sure?" as if I had *ACCIDENTALLY* grunted and sweated to manipulate
>the silly mouse to drop the icon into the bloody flaming trashcan!!!!!

GUIs normally make it simple to accomplish simple actions and impossible
to accomplish complex actions.  This stems directly from the "user model";
the Macintosh was intended to be an "appliance", and its GUI evolved from
the Xerox Star's, which was aimed at replacing the physical office desktop
with an electronic analogue.  UNIX, on the other hand, was developed by
people who wanted to be able to perform interesting actions without them
having to all have been anticipated in the system software implementation.

You see the same GUI trend in computer adventure games, where text-based
parsers have been almost totally supplanted by point-and-click interfaces.
This detracts a lot from the games, as only a few actions are possible at
any juncture, and they must all have been anticipated by the game designer.
Gone is the ability to try clever actions like:  "Light the fuse, then
withdraw to the previous room and wait for the explosion."  Instead, you
click on the fuse and the whole scenario plays itself out without any real
thought on your part.  Very passive, just like the television that Roberta
Williams used to so decry before Sierra started cranking out prescripted
adventures.