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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: a few more option-keys tips
Message-ID: <2189@peora.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-May-86 09:14:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.2189
Posted: Wed May 28 09:14:13 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 30-May-86 06:01:47 EDT
References: <907@harvard> <99700033@uiucdcs> <132@cbnap.UUCP> <3530@reed.UUCP>
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation, Orlando, Fl
Lines: 24

[The referenced article complains that the "shortcut" or "power user"
keystrokes contradict the Macintosh user interface's goal of ease of
use without a manual.]

I disagree with this complaint.  While it is somewhat annoying that you
can't find out the shortcuts without referencing a manual, the goal of the
user interface should be that the user can use whatever application is
being run, without having to reference the manual, to the extent that your
*average* user would want to use it.  Additional "esoteric" or "obscure"
features, if they are shown to the new user, tend to be confusing.  So
it makes sense that some features should be essentially hidden until the
program becomes familiar -- but they definitely should be available.

This is not a new idea by any means, though; for example, I can recall
that the same idea was expressed in the introductory description of the
old Univac TSOS operating system (ca. 1973), which gave a simple set of
commands that could do most things, but with a wide array of options to
give flexibility.  The trick there was a judicious choice of defaults: the
commands documented in the introductory manuals didn't tell about all the
available options, because the defaults were the ones most users would
want.  On the other hand, once you became familiar with the commands, you
could change these defaults to gain greater flexibility.
-- 
E. Roskos