Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!oliveb!amdahl!rtech!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Xerox sues Apple!
Message-ID: <9320@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 17 Dec 89 23:17:59 GMT
References: <172@comcon.UUCP> <7326@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 57

>In article <172@comcon.UUCP> roy@comcon.UUCP (Roy M. Silvernail) writes:
>> I have had to hassle with GUI's
>> that are less than intuitive because they had to change little
>> details(to avoid Apple's legal staff).
>
In article <7326@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>While I'm overjoyed that Xerox finally wake up and smelled the bacon, I'd
>love it if Apple retained a few fascist look-n-feel copyrights on some of
>the stupider "innovations" they came up with for the Mac. They're easy to
>figure out: they're all based on Apple's brain-damaged choice of a single
>button mouse:

Spoken like a true techno-nerd, Peter.  I have personally observed
highly intelligent and skilled UNIX programmers who could not remember
from one minute to the next what each button on their three-button
mouse did.  No doubt there are a few who have been able to commit it to
memory somewhere in the world, but from what I've seen, they are the
exceptions.  I have *never* seen a non-techno-jock user who could keep
the mouse buttons straight.  Multi-button mice are brain-damaged.

People find it intrinsically easier to keep mental distinctions
straight if there are significant differences between the things (e.g.,
click vs. double-click vs. shift-click) rather than having them all be
relatively undifferentiated members of a flat class of phenomena (e.g.,
left-click, middle-click, right-click).

>	Popping the active window to the front.

Part of the real-world metaphor approach to improving learning curves.
When working with a file on a real desktop, one almost always brings it
to the top of the stack first.  You really haven't looked into the
psychological basis of graphical interfaces at all, have you?

>	Pull-down menus.

Arguable, but I'll let it go.  Exvcept to mention that having a list
of available menus on the screen is absolutely vital to another principle
of manual-free software design -- feature advertisement.  However, this
does not necessarily mean pull-downs.

>	Double-clicking as a normal action.

Ooh, how nasty.  You actually have to double-click sometimes?  Wow.
That's a real bummer.  Have you considered a lawsuit?

>	And the one-button mouse itself.

See above.

It seems your approach is simple.  "If the Mac uses it, I'm against it."
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"I was brought up in the other service; but I knew from the first that the
 Devil was my natural master and captain and friend.  I saw that he was in
 the right, and that the world cringed to his conqueror only from fear."
    - Shaw, "The Devil's Disciple"