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From: rbl@nitrex.UUCP ( Dr. Robin Lake )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: A/UX window systems, Mac tool...( Hum Interface)
Message-ID: <672@nitrex.UUCP>
Date: 15 Mar 88 12:39:00 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>
Reply-To: rbl@nitrex.UUCP ( Dr. Robin Lake )
Organization: The Standard Oil Co., Cleveland
Lines: 57

In article <241@eos.UUCP> lyman@eos.UUCP (Lyman Taylor) writes:
>In article <1719@ssc-vax.UUCP> benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) writes:
>
>  .... ( deleted comments Byron Han made about multifinder )
>
>
>>Still sounds awfully serial to me.  What happens if you have two windows
>>at the top (i do this on a sun, usually two editting sessions) maybe
>>different editors side by side...?  Your menu bar would be constantly 
>>changing as you go back and forth (cutting and pasting)... (all that
>>wasted mouse travel time and a wasted mouse click )
>>I think context-sensitive menus make more sense (try SunView applications
>>and see how well they work) :-) (Seriously, I think a menu bar starts
>>making less sense in a multitasking environment were more than one 
>>application is running at a time in a number of different windows )
>
>
>
>       Unfortunately, us humans can only handle ONE high level cognitive task 
>at once.  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.
>
> ...  edited for brevity  ...
>	Think about it.  When have you ever seen anyone, including yourself,
>doing two things at once ( like running a spredsheet and SIMULTANEOUSLY writing
>something into your favorite editor ).  I give you a hint most computers I seen
>have ONE keyboard per user.  This applies to general human behavior also. 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.
>

Just HAVE to reply to this one.  I'm sitting at my workstation, using 3
keyboards and 3 CPUs  ---  just because they are not yet interconnected
and some of the software won't ever port:
	-  Color VAXstation 2000 running a vendor's modelling package (VMS)
	-  A VT240 which can run a second model on the VAXstation, but is
		almost always used to run a word processing package on another
		VAX/VMS system.  This is so I can maintain a running narrative
		of the modelling results.
	-  A Macintosh running (one or more, depending on whether MultiFinder
		is in use or not):
		-  Another, different modelling package
		-  A HyperCard utility that does some routine calculations
			needed for the VAXstation modelling work
		-  A VT240 terminal emulation to run models on the VAX when
			cheap hardcopy is needed
		-  A VT100 emulation to read news on a UNIX system while the
			model(s) run.

Would I like multiple windows and multitasking on a single machine?  ---   only
if it's a MAC!  Then it can run EVERYTHING via terminal emulators in one box
---- but there aren't enough serial ports on the Mac to do that!
-- 
Rob Lake
{decvax,ihnp4!cbosgd}!mandrill!nitrex!rbl