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From: gobbel@parcvax.Xerox.COM (Randy Gobbel)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <588@parcvax.Xerox.COM>
Date: Wed, 28-Oct-87 17:04:37 EST
Article-I.D.: parcvax.588
Posted: Wed Oct 28 17:04:37 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 03:25:27 EST
References: <301@mv03.ecf.toronto.edu> <125@nusdhub.UUCP> <447@gtx.com> <343@eeg.UUCP>
Reply-To: gobbel@parcvax.xerox.com.UUCP (Randy Gobbel)
Organization: Xerox PARC
Lines: 15
Keywords: human factors, interfaces
Summary: here's one

Bravo, the text editor that was most widely used around PARC several years
ago, had a command-mode/insertion-mode user interface with undo of the last
command.  Commands were single alphabetic characters.  The classic error in
this editor was to type "ENDLOOP", a Mesa reserved word, when the editor
wasn't in command mode.  To Bravo, this meant "Everything [select entire
buffer]" "Normalize [scroll to beginning of selection]" "Delete" "Look Open
[add two more points of leading to the current paragraph]".  The last
command's only effect was to make it impossible to recover from the deletion
of the entire buffer.

-Randy
----
Randy Gobbel, Xerox PARC/ISL
Disclaimer: Opinions here are mine, not my employer's
Arpanet: gobbel.pa@xerox.com
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