Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf.edu!ccb.ucsf.edu!dick From: dick@ccb.ucsf.edu (Dick Karpinski) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes Message-ID: <1065@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> Date: Tue, 3-Nov-87 19:55:54 EST Article-I.D.: ucsfcca.1065 Posted: Tue Nov 3 19:55:54 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 08:27:08 EST References: <301@mv03.ecf.toronto.edu> <125@nusdhub.UUCP> <447@gtx.com> <343@eeg.UUCP> <588@parcvax.Xerox.COM> Sender: root@cca.ucsf.edu Reply-To: dick@ucsfccb.UUCP (Dick Karpinski) Organization: UCSF Computer Center Lines: 23 Keywords: human factors, interfaces Summary: Date key in command mode screws up document. One of the nicest things in the VS ASE editor derived from the UCSD Pascal editor was the trainable function keys. I wrote a regular column for a while about neat ways to use them. There was even one example of doing arithmetic with them (using table lookup). However, one feature was that the system date was automatically loaded into . This was handy for dating a letter or memo while inserting text, but if you hit that key by accident in command mode, there was one month when things would go quite awry. Any day in May would (if executed) ask to remargin (the Margin command) the current paragraph. The a would be ignored and the y would acceed to the proposed action. If you were in the midst of a program, this would effectively destroy everything forward and backward of the cursor up to a blank line. The compiler could handle the result just fine, but people were out of luck. Dick Dick Karpinski Manager of Minicomputer Services, UCSF Computer Center UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf!dick (415) 476-4529 (11-7) BITNET: dick@ucsfcca or dick@ucsfvm Compuserve: 70215,1277 USPS: U-76 UCSF, San Francisco, CA 94143-0704 Telemail: RKarpinski Domain: dick@cca.ucsf.edu Home (415) 658-6803 Ans 658-3797