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From: sharon@asylum.SF.CA.US (Sharon Fisher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Xerox sues Apple!!!
Message-ID: <9193@asylum.SF.CA.US>
Date: 22 Dec 89 05:35:42 GMT
References: <33269@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <10673@encore.Encore.COM> <2676@aecom.yu.edu> <994@biar.UUCP> <1328@key.COM> <2590444E.22947@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Reply-To: sharon@asylum.UUCP (Sharon Fisher)
Organization: The Asylum; Belmont, CA
Lines: 36

In article <2590444E.22947@paris.ics.uci.edu> truesdel@ics.uci.edu (Scott Truesdell) writes:
>jsp@key.COM (James Preston) writes:
>>  But take another look at a typical
>>Mac paint program.  Tell me that you knew immediately--without reading any
>>documention and without any help from other mac users and without having
>>seen any usage of any similar program before--that the little tipping can 
>>with the stuff pouring out of it was used to fill an area with a pattern.
>>Tell me that replacing that cute little picture with the words "fill area" 
>>wouldn't be more straightforward.  (This is probably not even the best
>>example of "undecipherable icon whose meaning could be better conveyed
>>with a couple of words", but it's all I can think of right now.)
>
>Your example was not the best, but I get the point. But, referring to
>your example, I NEVER saw ANY manual for MacPaint EVER. If I was ever
>confused about the little tipping paint bucket, the confusion lasted a
>total of about 3 seconds. And the bucket has the SAME FUNCTION in EVERY
>SINGLE PAINT PROGRAM. That is a gain. But the real gain comes when you
>get used to using feature-laden programs. While the icon based
>interface may or may not be easier to decypher at first try, it is
>definitely easier to do a quick visual recognition (one level of
>abstraction) rather than the visual recognition, then the language
>processing (two levels of abstraction) necessary for text-based
>interfaces. 

I'm with John.  Early in the Mac's life, I tried to use MacPaint and
some sort of graphing program.  I gave up, almost in tears, after a
couple of hours.  (And I was hardly a computer neophyte at the time.)
Since then, somebody sat down with me for an hour or so and showed me
how to use word processing programs, enough so I could pretty much
deal with it when I had to use a Mac for a week.  But there were still
times when I simply could not figure out what combination of icons,
menus, and mouse-clicking I was supposed to use to perform a specific
function.  I get really annoyed at people who insist that the Mac is
*always* easier to use for *all* people.  It isn't the case, and being
told that alienates the people for whom it isn't true -- or, worse
still, makes them feel stupid.