Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!wuarchive!uunet!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Xerox sues Apple! Message-ID: <7408@ficc.uu.net> Date: 23 Dec 89 23:07:45 GMT References: <172@comcon.UUCP> <7326@ficc.uu.net> <9320@hoptoad.uucp> <7340@ficc.uu.net> <9375@hoptoad.uucp> Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 76 In article <9375@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: > Sorry, I was under the impression that you were the same Peter da Silva > who said on gnu.misc.discuss last week, "I'm a computer nerd. And proud > of it." [Disclaimer: the following is used purely to illustrate a point. I am not attempting to claim that the levels of prejudice, bigotry, social disadvantage, and so on are at all comparable. ] It's ok for one black guy to call another "nigger". It's not OK for a white guy to do it. > Actually, my only experience with multi-button mice is on Suns, I'm truly sorry to hear that. > >I think you have oberved a phenomenon in isolation and applied your > >prejudices (learned from the Macintosh marketing literature) to it, > >rather than trying to figure out what the real problem was. > Bullshit. Well, then how about trying a system that consistently uses multiple buttons. Like the Xerox Star (ever heard of it?) or the Amiga. > I suggest that the number of time someone wants to make marks on > a sheet of paper which is not on the top of its stack on the desktop is > vanishingly small. I scribble notes on partially obscured listings all the time. > >> You really haven't looked into the > >> psychological basis of graphical interfaces at all, have you? > >Right. Just because I don't agree with you I must not have thought about it. > No: just because you don't refer to those principles, you must not have > thought about them. Right. Observing that I prefer the Star metaphor of drawing a document into a tool (which you just agreed is more intuitive), on the grounds that it's more intuitive, doesn't count. > Mac scroll bars do not vary in size except with the size of the window; > that is, they fill the left or bottom edge of the window regardless of > its size. Perhaps you are referring to the variable position of the > thumb? Screw the terminology. You obviously understand what I'm talking about. > >Automatically detecting diskette insertion is nice. > Actually, I'd say that *not* detecting them is stupid. It's a pretty > obvious thing to do for the user, not really deserving of praise. Many innovations are "obvious" once they've been put into place. > >But the single-button mouse, and the kludges necessary to use it, isn't. > I don't think they're kludges. I do. > I trust you're aware that there is a > sort of "conversion shock" in switching from one interface to another; Yeh, but I played with a Lisa before I had a chance to use anything with a multibutton mouse. I spent extensive time on a Mac years before I had a chance at an Amiga. I first used X-windows 6 months ago. If this was a factor it'd be the other way around. -- `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. . 'U` Also or . "It was just dumb luck that Unix managed to break through the Stupidity Barrier and become popular in spite of its inherent elegance." -- gavin@krypton.sgi.com