Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:46133 comp.sys.ibm.pc:40376 comp.sys.mac:44759
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!unhd!rg
From: rg@uunet!unhd (Roger Gonzalez )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Xerox sues Apple!!! (GUI Design)
Message-ID: <1989Dec19.193744.6301@uunet!unhd>
Date: 19 Dec 89 19:37:44 GMT
Reply-To: rg@unhd.UUCP (Roger Gonzalez )
Organization: Marine Systems Engineering Lab
Lines: 43

Totally aside from the Mac/IBM debating, I'm curious about how people
feel about GUI designs in general (you too, Amigoids).

Some GUI's work well.  But, whenever I have to use one that is poorly
designed, I start to miss VM/CMS :-)

Some comments:

Don't design the GUI so that the user needs pixel-precision to do things!
After my morning gallon of coffee, the last thing I want to do is line things
up to pixels.  I like objects that recognize themselves as wholes, and
especially auto-caddish features like "attach to endpoint".

In one of my user interface design books (I'll look up the specifics if
anyone is curious) numerous studies were cited in which menu driven and
iconic interfaces were proven to be effective methods for (a) novices and
(b) small command sets, especially hierarchical command sets.  They were
shown to be more of an annoyance in large command sets and with experienced
users.  

On a Mac, if I create a bunch of files (say 30) that all contain the
string "foobar" in their name, can I delete "??foobar.*" without pointing
at every blinking file?  I've never figured out how.

The Mac methodology seems to be "I am an object, and am associated with the
tool that created me.  I won't let you use the wrong tool, so don't worry."
PC's look at it notably differently.  They say "There are objects, and there 
are tools.  Use any tool you want on any object.  It's up to you to figure
out the right tool for the job."  I prefer the latter schema, because it
is inherently more powerful.  More dangerous, but more powerful.  In addition,
I think its closer to the way that people think.  I may be wrong about this
whole section, but whenever I've tried to look at or otherwise hack into
things at a low level, things complained noisily because I wasn't using the
proper applications.

Comments welcome (especially from Amigoids, since I've never used one).
-Roger

-- 
UUCP:   ..!uunet!unhd!rg      | USPS: Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory
BITNET: r_gonzalez at unhh    |       University of New Hampshire
PHONE:  (603) 862-4600        |       242 SERB
FAX:    (603) 862-4399        |       Durham, NH  03824-3525