Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucdcsp!gillies
From: gillies@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: UI Consistency (was 1 vs 3 butt
Message-ID: <76000168@uiucdcsp>
Date: 23 Mar 88 04:48:00 GMT
References: <7751@apple.Apple.Com>
Lines: 17
Nf-ID: #R:apple.Apple.Com:7751:uiucdcsp:76000168:000:682
Nf-From: uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Mar 22 22:48:00 1988


Consistency can be a real bummer.

On the Xerox Star, you can always copy or move an icon.  If you
accidentally *move* a document to the printer, sure enough, star
creates a hard copy and totally destroys the document!

People think of *move* as being an operation that can be undone.
Unfortunately, there is no way to make the printer eat your document
and give you back the electronic version!

This is a classic problem in user interface design (perhaps it's
related to Godel's incompleteness theorem?) -- any sufficiently
powerful set of rules contains ambiguities that screw up consistency!

Don Gillies {ihnp4!uiucdcs!gillies} U of Illinois
            {gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu}