Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ingr!gentrys
From: gentrys@ingr.com (Scott Gentry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: America Online
Summary: CO2
Message-ID: <7991@ingr.com>
Date: 18 Dec 89 22:32:49 GMT
References: <1989Dec9.170635.22759@cs.rochester.edu> <24891@cup.portal.com> <1989Dec11.165834.7605@cs.rochester.edu>
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, Al
Lines: 64

In article <1989Dec11.165834.7605@cs.rochester.edu>, fulk@cs.rochester.edu (Mark Fulk) writes:
> Once again, the AO people on this net have completely missed the point.

Not all of us.

> a naive person, especially when it comes to user interfaces.  Furthermore,
> caching, which seems to have been a brand new word to you all, has been a
> current concept in computer science since Alan Turing.
>
I'm happy to say that I know exactly what you're talking about and that I 
agree fully.  Caching the menu structure is a logical extension--up to a point.
You see, you stumbled upon that point in earlier posts... You will eventually
have to sign-on to update your lists.  What I and most of the Forum Leaders
would really like to see are the old (read those you've seen) items stored
locally.  This would allow you get only NEW items at login (you would still be
able to access old items through the old method).  However, downloading the 
entire structure of all menus/forums/areas is not practical.  

Practicality... Things change daily, sometimes greatly.  Would you want to 
pay for the two or three hours it might take to update your lists?  If I read
you correctly, you want the entire system to be downloaded so you can 
navigate locally.  Think about those three hours.  A more practical approach is
allowing the user to decide which areas he/she wishes to update regularly.
 
> So what solution suggests itself?  Storing the menus on the user's Mac
> is clearly needed.  You want to make updating changes transparent, so
> some sort of modification-date driven caching scheme is clearly necessary.
> If you don't get understand the argument, retake (or take for the first time)
> the undergraduate course in computer organization.

Read above, please...
> 
> I am sick of reading replies to articles by people who clearly didn't read
> the entire article.  The last posting by an AOer repeated claims that had
> clearly been addressed in the article he replied to; he, of course, failed
> to include those parts.  I am also sick of being told that my problem is that
> I am not just like you, and if I would just see the light and start behaving
> like you want me to, everything would be just hunky-dory.
>
That's not it at all.  Sometimes explaining how things work to people who 
obviously care enough to complain might help.  In this case it didn't. :( 
 
> WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.  One of your users just gave you very explicit
> and clear instructions on how to make your service more usable to him.  It's
> a good bet, especially given the complaints that people make about speed, that
> a bunch of other people would appreciate the changes.  They are not even hard
> changes to make.  And your consistent response is to tell this guy to jump
> in a lake, he doesn't understand your system, he should be doing things your
> way, etc. etc.  Don't you see how offensive you have been?  Didn't anyone
> tell you how to deal with a customer?
> 
> Mark Fulk

I can't speak for Russ, but I can tell you that you've been heard.  Please 
feel free to E-mail me a reply.  I'd like to hear all your ideas to see
if they are like mine.  Remember, the system is still young.  People do make
mistakes.


-- 
*Scott Gentry             |UUCP:uunet!ingr!gentrys    |                   *
*Intergraph Corporation   |America Online: AFL Scott  |I speak for myself *
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