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Path: utzoo!utcsstat!laura
From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: expert-friendly: are long names a waste of time?
Message-ID: <1500@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Nov-83 17:20:22 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1500
Posted: Tue Nov 29 17:20:22 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Nov-83 17:39:30 EST
References: <6196@watmath.UUCP>, <507@dciem.UUCP>, <1490@utcsstat.UUCP>, <6206@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 30

Okay, I have 2 problems. First of all, i thought that the names were
supposed to be easier to remember because they were aethetically pleasing.
Why are they eaiser to rememeber then?

I actually have 14 one letter commands in my bin, so speed of typing
is very important to me. All the commands in the editor I know are
one letter commands as well. Somehow I seem to remember them.

What does the long commnds give you that a really fast menu wouldn't?
i thought that the long commnds and the menus were designed for the
same group of people. If they aren't then you have isolated a group
of people whom I do not recognise. Note, that I do not think that
novices become casual users, but that I think that they are two very
different groups of people. I also do not think that being an 'expert'
is some boolean function like "being alive" where you either are one
or are not. What I know about ingres right now could fit on a 
postage stamp -- but I bet if i had to learn how to use it it would
take me a week, after which I would start wanting to have shorter
names for things...

But I am perfectly willing to admit that my whole problems with "too
much typing" would go away if I could get a menu system that went
fast enough and was not organised heirarchially (or strictly
heirarchially). It is just that the menus take to long to get drawn,
so they are more of a pain than the typing.

What have I missed here? I still don't know what it is.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura