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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!azure!billp
From: billp@azure.UUCP (Bill Pfeifer)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: expert-friendly: are long names a waste of time?
Message-ID: <2387@azure.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 2-Dec-83 12:35:43 EST
Article-I.D.: azure.2387
Posted: Fri Dec  2 12:35:43 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Dec-83 08:48:39 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 35

Larry,
You accuse Laura of a narrow view of the world; let me accuse you of the same!
All advocates of long command names seem to overlook one thing:
Many, if not most novice users can't touch-type!
I have been using a keyboard for many years now, but an abortion like
"compile_debug" still takes me close to 7 seconds to type with my hunt-and-peck
method.  Yes, I know that I should learn to touch-type, but I just don't seem
to have the knack for it.

I have observed many absolute novices struggling with the insane arrangement of
the keys on a standard keyboard, doing almost a linear scan of the entire
layout to find each key.  I can almost feel their frustration, if after finally
typing "compile-pascal" the system wouldn't take it, and they wouldn't know
where to get help that told them that the "-" should have been a "_".
Personally, I find "pc" much easier to remember than "compile_pascal"
(or was it "pascal.compile" or "compile_my_program_which_is_written_in_pascal"
or "!@#*&%?/_$^>/@$!").

Did you ever see the original calculator-style keyboard of the PET computer?
It cannot be used for touch-typing at all.  The explanation that I heard
for that thing was that throughout the entire design and evaluation cycle
not a single touch-typist saw it.

A novice has to struggle with learning and memorizing a lot more than just
command names.  I remember how I was baffled at first with the idea of the
directory structure of UNIX*.  There were so many new concepts to learn along
with a new set of commands.  It doesn't really matter if the new command
now is "ls" or "directory", if I'm used to "PFLIST" and "DIR" and "CAT" on
the 3 other systems I am using.  If I have to memorize a new command anyway,
let it be short.

Bill Pfeifer
Tektronix
-----------------------
* UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.