Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!pitt!cisunx!jcbst3
From: jcbst3@cisunx.UUCP (James C. Benz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Iconitis
Message-ID: <17530@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 14 Apr 89 14:44:19 GMT
References: <1930@dataio.Data-IO.COM> <11555@lanl.gov> <17376@cisunx.UUCP> <28558@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (James C. Benz)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 21

In article <28558@apple.Apple.COM> austing@Apple.COM (Glenn L. Austin) writes:
>Plenty of us?  I know more people who *DON'T* know Unix than those that do.
>Also, I know more than a few people who are totally intimidated by an English
>interface (on the PC, does "FORMAT" get my document ready for printing?).
>Oh, by the way, the last parenthesizes statement is common among secretaries
>who know that they have to do something to print their document, but know
>very little about the PC they are using!

So go ahead and write software for users at the kindergarten level.  But
leave the option open for the knowledgeable user to bypass all the drek
and get some real work done.  The point of my posting was not that ALL
users can do without icons, or even that most users can, but that MANY
of us can, and for my money, I will be buying computers that don't get
in my way with a lot of window dressing.  I will not be buying Macintosh.
I will not be buying anything with a mouse unless the software is designed
to allow me to unplug the mouse and work exclusively with the keyboard.
And icons belong in church, not on my computer screen.
-- 
Jim Benz 		     jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu     If a modem 
University of Pittsburgh					 answers,
UCIR			     (412) 648-5930			 hang up!