Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!nrl-cmf!ukma!gatech!mcnc!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <3268@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 4 Feb 88 19:45:19 GMT
References: <454@xios.XIOS.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 46

in article <454@xios.XIOS.UUCP>, greg@xios.XIOS.UUCP (Greg Franks) says:
> 
> By the way - the user interface on UNIX is the pits too.  Consistency is
> the key word!

Is the UNIX-style user interface really that bad?  Archaic, maybe.  But, like
sharks and beetles, there's probably a good reason that it's still around.  And
I think that reason is that once you learn it, it's faster to use than anything
else.

The Mentor folks started playing user interface games in the latest issue of
their IDEA Schematic Capture software that we use for schematics here.  There's
now a full WIMP interface, complete with both pull down and pop up menus, 
the requester/dialog box, etc.  The mouse/bitpad was always used for a bit of
moving objects around and positioning things, but now you can get to every
command via the mouse, much like a Sun, Amiga, or Macintosh.  However, they
were smart enough to leave the command-driven interface in.  Now, I've used
plenty of WIMP interfaces, some even appropriate to the environment they were
in.  And there's no denying that the learning curve on Mentor's Neted is 
about half of what it used to be.  But using the WIMP interface instead of
just typing commands as I used to, I get about 1/3 the preformance.  Part of
the problem is that Apollo graphics aren't very fast, and we aren't even 
using '020 based Apollos.  But even given no graphics delays, I can still
type out a command consisting of a few characters faster than I can even 
position my mouse, much less walk through a tree of menus and dialog options.

UNIX folks tend to use UNIX for a number of years.  The WIMP interface might
help them out at the very beginning, but it's going to eventually get in the
way, at least for things done quite often.  I'd still like it around for
programs I use occasionally; it's faster than digging up the user's manual,
but it should be optional.  

Not that I'm completely against WIMP-type things; there are plenty of 
applications that work better in such environments.  Windows make great
virtual terminals; if you split you UNIX session into 4 or 5 shells, each
in it's separate window, you'll make much more use of multitasking than
if you're confined to a single window.  Emacs (this thread did start with
Emacs, did't it) in overlapping windows is far superior to the split-screen
kludge needed to run on terminals.

> Greg Franks             XIOS Systems Corporation, 1600 Carling Avenue,
> (613) 725-5411          Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Z 8R8
> utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!xios!greg    "There's so much to sea in Nova Scotia"
-- 
Dave Haynie  "The B2000 Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"