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From: stel@tank.uchicago.edu (stelios  valavanis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: User interface(was Re: Xerox sues Apple!!!)
Summary: wrong as usual
Message-ID: <6877@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 26 Dec 89 21:34:16 GMT
References: <6767@tank.uchicago.edu> <1989Dec17.112127.27333@me.toronto.edu> <JACOBS.89Dec18135051@cmos.cs.utah.edu> <1830@bucket.UUCP>
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 51

In article <1830@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
>
>Here are my two favorite examples of why it is at least *sometimes*
>a good idea to have a command line interface available.
>
>1. del *.bak
>	vs
>   {long sequence of click and drags}

you can do this on the mac by viewing files by 'type' and selecting
all the files with that type with a single mouse-stroke and dragginf
them to the trash.  i do it all the time.  not only that you can
exclude a couple of those files by shift-clicking them out of the
selection before dragging to the trash.  try doing that on your
vanilla pc!  the only thing that allows you to do stuff like that on a
pc are utls like xtree pro which i think is a very good piece of
software.  i haven't seen what the mac version looks like since i have
never gotten frustrated with the interface as i have been on the pc.
for your info i have been a pc programmer/user for a couple more years
than on the mac.

>2. copy \subdir\filename.ext
>	vs
>   {the totally *non* intuitive sequence needed to move a file from
>    a subdirectory to the root directory}

try dragging directly to the disk icon.  this will put whatever into
the root directory.

>I make extensive use of utilities with a "point and shoot" interface,
>so I know that command line isn't perfect. But on the other hand, there
>are times when command line is a whole lot simpler.

i agree but so many of these have been addressed so well on the mac
that i can't help but prefer it.  and windows doesn't compare since
you have to setup each prog to get it to work properly and not all
support the mouse nor the fonts and you can't click on files.  i still
use windows most of the time when on a pc but the fact that i have to
exit it to run something because i haven't installed it yet and don't
have the time means something.

>BTW how come I can't drag the file onto the desktop, close the window
>on the subdirectory, then grab the file from where I left it and drop
>it into the window for the root directory? *That* would be intuitive!

stel

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