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From: mwm@eris (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: A/UX window systems, Mac tool...( Hum Interface)
Message-ID: <7367@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 4 Mar 88 05:19:09 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <7523@apple.Apple.Com> <1719@ssc-vax.UUCP> <241@eos.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: mwm@eris.UUCP (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer)
Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica
Lines: 40
Keywords: window human computer interface

In article <241@eos.UUCP> lyman@eos.UUCP (Lyman Taylor) writes:
<	Multitasking saves the World!      Come on, the only person I know of
<
<       Unfortunately, us humans can only handle ONE high level cognitive task 
<at once.
<For
<example, people can only handle one conversation at a time.  Some people can
<easily and rapidly " task switch " from conversation to conversation ( doing
<something remarkably similiar to a multitasking operating system ) but they
<cannot do it in parallel.

Uh, could you make up your mind? Switching between one task and
another _defines_ multitasking. So your friends who can switch
conversations _can_ multitask. Doing it in a windowed computing
environment is even easier. Even as I type, I'm watching the output
from a compile, checking for error messages. The other tasks I'm
running now are either display updates (clock), or daemons that do
things for me when certain conditions are met. Am I "using" those
applications? I think so - it's just that they cause to happen
subconsciously things that I'd otherwise have to consciously do.

<Therefore, we only need ONE menu at a time.  Anything above that is 
<a nice HACK, but not all that useful for us mortals.  Needless to say, it 
<ignores most of what about Human Computer Interaction.

This is different from the statement that you can only do one thing at
a time. Obviously, you can only use as many menus as there are
pointing devices on the system. Give me two mice on some workstations,
and I can probably use two menus simultaneously.

One the other hand, the "one" menu means it's probably tied down to a
specific place, so you have to go there to use the menu. This makes it
_hard_ to let muscle memory make menu selections for you. That's an
important thing to miss. 

	<mike
--
[Our regularly scheduled .signature preempted.]		Mike Meyer
The Amiga 1000: Let's build _the_ hackers machine.	mwm@berkeley.edu
The Amiga 500: Let's build one as cheaply as possible!	ucbvax!mwm
The Amiga 2000: Let's build one inside an IBM PC!	mwm@ucbjade.BITNET