Xref: utzoo alt.religion.computers:2563 comp.windows.ms.programmer:3326 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!sics.se!ifi.uio.no!enag From: enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) Newsgroups: alt.religion.computers,comp.windows.ms.programmer Subject: Re: ap, Windows BASIC Message-ID: Date: 25 Jun 91 14:56:55 GMT References: <91169.084617F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> <4k4q47w164w@mantis.co.uk> <1991Jun20.034708.2816@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <1991Jun21.002629.17528@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> Sender: enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 48 Nntp-Posting-Host: gyda.ifi.uio.no In-Reply-To: rogerhef@matt.ksu.ksu.edu's message of 21 Jun 91 00: 26:29 GMT Originator: enag@gyda.ifi.uio.no Roger Heflin writes: | | Emacs, the editor with many shift keys? That is only easier to use after | you have spent months learing the key sequences. I can train someone to use | the QB editor in a day, you cannot say that for your editor. Ah yes, the "every user is a novice" world view. Tell me, what does your user do after three months of active use of the QB "editor"? (Yes, there are editors which are good enough to allow three months and more of active use without killing people.) The "easy to learn" bullshit is relevant for the complete neophytes with zero experience and barely non-zero intelligence. Sure, this covers a vast amount of users for the first 30 seconds, as they stare at a demonstration version and are about to decide what to buy. My experience is that most users have a working memory and are reasonable intelligent and willing to learn. Which means that after you have trained someone to use QB "editor" in a day, they will be at a very low level of competence for the rest of their life, unless a miracle happens, or they decide to leave the user-friendly asylum. Learning emacs takes a while, but it's surprisingly easy to just edit your documents on an infrequent basis, too. You don't have to know about "transpose-paragraph" the first day, and people don't generally write major modes for office document support the first three weeks, either. Can you imagine a telephone which is so easy to use that you don't need any time learning how to use it? Think of it, a number, access codes, dialtones, busy tone, ringing, push buttons, tones, flash, etc, etc, are not at all user-friendly. It would be much better if you had a menu on the phone on which you could select with a mouse that you wanted to move your phone to another office, select from a menu which person you wanted to talk to, have voice feedback, "Your party is busy", "Your party is now being summoned to answer the phone. Please wait." And instead of ringing at the other end, the phone would say "A PC salesman from Bogus, Inc would like to speak with you, shall I tell him to bug off and forget it?" Now think of how many times you use a phone. Now think of all the incredible losers in the world who could actually _need_ a menu-based phone. Surely that is the way to go. Give me expert-friendly software, and a means to go from novice to expert which assumes that I can think and have a working brain. -- Erik Naggum Professional Programmer +47-2-836-863 Naggum Software Electronic Text 0118 OSLO, NORWAY Computer Communications