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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng,net.nlang
Subject: Re: expert-friendly: are long names a waste of time?
Message-ID: <3384@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Nov-83 17:56:49 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3384
Posted: Tue Nov 29 17:56:49 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Nov-83 17:56:49 EST
References: <6196@watmath.UUCP>, <507@dciem.UUCP>, <1490@utcsstat.UUCP>, <6206@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 41

I'm afraid I have to go along with Laura.  A user who does not know
how to do what he wants does not *want* to have to guess whether he
should type "list", "print", or "output" (to say nothing of "lpr"!)
to get a printout on the line printer.  He wants a menu which says,
among other things:

	list	list contents of current directory
	print	print a file on the line printer

I hope this example clearly indicates the perils of requiring users
to guess command names, be those names long or short.

Ian! comments "novice users are either going to remain novices...or
become casual users".  Wrong, this was just Laura's point:  either
they will become casual (i.e., once-a-month) users, or they will
become experienced users.  No way will they remain novices (in the
precise sense being used here).  "Experienced" does not necessarily
mean "expert" or "knowledgable"; it means "I know how to do the things
I do frequently".  This is exactly the right condition for abbreviations
and short commands.  When dealing with things she does not do often,
the experienced user (that includes you and me, folks!) is effectively
a casual user, i.e. has no idea how to obtain function "foo".  This is
exactly the right condition for menus.  Why do you think summary cards
are so popular?

Ian! further observes that he doesn't want to call up a 400-item menu.
This is so ridiculous that I can only class it as a deliberate attempt
to obscure the issue, like the twits who still refuse to install Unix
because "its file system isn't crashproof".  Nobody in his right mind
is going to set up a 400-item menu; it's going to be tree-structured,
with a top level set up by general areas of activity.  With a fast display
and a mouse, getting to (say) Pascal compilation from there is click,
click, click.  Faster than typing "compile_pascal", and no memory needed.

I agree with Ian! that if one *must* guess the name of a command, life
is simpler if names are formed systematically so that guessing is easy
and reliable.  The point is that the system should not require me to
guess command names at all!
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry