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From: mls@mhuxu.UUCP (Michael L. Siemon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Useability, Das, Trashcans, etc.
Message-ID: <7365@mhuxu.UUCP>
Date: 22 Mar 88 18:14:09 GMT
References: <2956@whutt.UUCP> <7004@drutx.ATT.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 49
Summary: don't YOU set
	 MY work habits

In article <7004@drutx.ATT.COM>, clive@drutx.ATT.COM (Clive Steward) writes:
> From article <2956@whutt.UUCP>, by mls@whutt.UUCP (SIEMON):
> 
> > I like having desk accessories stick around, but then I find that they are 
> > almost always buried underneath the active window....
> 
> Really, the answer here is probably usage habits, ... 
> 
> Most programs support the window shrink/expand box.  ...

  ???? (maybe most of yours do)

Anyway, why should I change my "usage habits" just because the OS is an
idiot?  I LIKE working with an application window taking up most of the
screen (especially in something like Trapeze); and I LIKE having a calculator
up on top (in an out of the way corner -- I am not contending that all the
space in my large window is in constant active use.)  Trapeze is a good case
because it goes out of its way to make temporary calculations difficult.
It is also lousy at saving user preferences.

> > [ME] What Apple needs is a good dose of regular expressions.
> 
> Well, probably not.  Skilled use is really a pleasure, for the right things,
> and applications can provide this ...
      !!!!!!!!!!!!

AARGH!! Welcome to Messy-DOS! Despite Apple's (welcome) insistence on a good
human interface, and its propaganda for what it thinks is a good interface
(I highly encourage ALL programmers, especially those embarking on X or NeWS
applications to read the HIG book.  After discarding some of Apple's dogmas,
you will be left with a very good base of ideas for interactive work ...)
Despite all this, I say you really don't want every application to completely
reinvent everything for itself.  Yes, MacApp is a STEP in the right direction,
to incorporate the interface in official code that all decent applications
use.  The point of (e.g.) file name expansion in a UNIX shell is that NO
application EVER has to do it -- they have to go out of their way NOT to get
it right!  Mac applications all approximate the desired guidelines (of course
Apple only releases programs that exactly match the guidelines :-)); in some
cases the approximation is very rough indeed.

All this aside, I will repeat the complaint you seem so readily to dismiss:
I dislike interaction forced on me by a stupid program when the nature of
the task being accomplished is not interactive.  I also repeat, I think that
Multifinder was a pretty good job, but I also find myself not using it.

Michael Siemon
contracted to AT&T Bell Laboratories
ihnp4!mhuxu!mls
disclaimer: standard (is it an ANSI standard yet?)