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From: spf@whuts.ATT.COM (Steve Frysinger of Blue Feather Farm)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (airplane throttles)
Message-ID: <5212@whuts.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Dec 88 15:11:33 GMT
References: <10746@s.ms.uky.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ
Lines: 20

> My favorite example
> is all the flight simulator programs we have nowadays... 
> ... Now, using a joystick is closer but still how to you change
> the throttle?  Why by groping around on your keyboard while trying to
> concentrate on flying.  Sorry, none of them work -- 

Actually, in all the planes I flew you changed the throttle by groping
around on the dash board, finding it amidst a whole bunch of other
controls. You quickly learned its position so that you could find it easily
without looking - a lot like touch typing.

I don't really have a point, except that the activities a metaphor
is copying may not be performed optimally themselves.  I don't think
tiller steering in horseless carriages ever became very popular -
in fact, tiller steering was subsequently dropped from boats too -
but think, for a moment, about how weird the concept of a steering
wheel is.  Why does the car go in the direction of the TOP
of the wheel and not the BOTTOM?  Hmmmm.

Steve Frysinger