Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!speaker
From: speaker@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng,net.nlang
Subject: Re: expert-friendly: are long names a waste of time?
Message-ID: <4173@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Dec-83 21:46:28 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.4173
Posted: Thu Dec  1 21:46:28 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Dec-83 04:55:04 EST
References: <6196@watmath.UUCP>, <507@dciem.UUCP>, <1490@utcsstat.UUCP> <6206@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 39


	With long names at least no one is *forcing* me to remember
	their abbreviations.

With long names, you're forcing everyone who likes short names to use
aliases.

	How will nonsense names help them learn?

Some people need long names to keep the meaning associated with
the command name itself.  Some people have no problem associating
the command's meaning with a terse name... even a nonsense name.
I like the idea of keeping names terse (for ease of typing) yet
descriptive.  Better naming conventions are probably what you
want... not just longer names.  This problem isn't easily resolved
since we all need one nomenclature to work with and no one likes
the same one.

For novices who need help, lists of commands in menus don't
quite cut it.

Instead of menus of commands and their descriptions it might be
nice to have a shell expert-system that interacted with the novice.
This could work with pop-up windows for terminals fast enough to
handle windows, or in the style of 'write' when used with slower
terminals.  VMESS has a help facility similar in concept to this,
but incredibly primitive.

For more advanced users, lists of commands or a terse help
facility like that in EMACS would be appropriate.

I agree with Laura that a non-hierarchical menu system would
be appropriate, the bottleneck is speed and the intelligence
of your terminal.
-- 

					- Bessie the Hellcow
					speaker@umcp-cs
					speaker.umcp-cs@CSnet-Relay