Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!ulysses!sfmag!sfsup!shap
From: shap@sfsup.UUCP (J.S.Shapiro)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Power Users (long)
Summary: rebinding runs contrary to the mac interface
Message-ID: <2580@sfsup.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jan 88 02:57:26 GMT
References: <2373@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU> <164500076@uiucdcsb>
Organization: AT&T-IS, Summit N.J. USA
Lines: 27

In article <164500076@uiucdcsb>, kaplan@uiucdcsb.UUCP writes:
> I would like to have a fair degree of control over my interface to any
> tool;  specifically I would like to be able to set/change my own
> keymaps.  Emacs is of course the best example of this, but so is X windows.
> Given just about any Mac product I have used (MacWrite, MacDraw, MacScheme,
> Word) extensively, it is very irritating that I cannot rearrange the order
> in which things appear on menus, bind frequently used commands to simple key
> sequences, etc.  None of the systems (even word) I have used on the Mac
> give any support for this.  It means that my use of the system cannot
> "grow" as I become more mature on it.
> 
> Simon Kaplan
> (kaplan@a.cs.uiuc.edu)
> (any major node)!{seismo, ihnp4}!uiucdcs!kaplan

While I agree with the sentiment here - I use emacs, and find
its power sufficiently important to me that I have portedf it
to several unbelievbly obscure places - it should be pointed out
that this behavior relies intrinsically on modality in the interface,
and to an inexperienced user this is counterintuitive.

There is a balance to be found between the expert and the beginner.
Power users aren't beginners for as long as most, but for the
first few days you need to have something they can approach.

Perhaps it is possible to limit "modal" binding to things like
function keys, where the behavior isn't so surprising to the user.