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From: thomas@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Thomas Summerall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: 2D vs 3D debate
Message-ID: <19043@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 2 Feb 90 18:24:59 GMT
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Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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One problem beginning users seem to have with the macintoh interfacte is
identifying and differentiating between things that can be chosen, dragged,
activated, edited, or any combination of the above.  Nothing intuitively
informs users that a desktop icon is more "dragable" than, say, a chooser
icon.  Perhaps mobile objects (icons, windows, tear off menus, etc.) should
look three dimensional, as John T. Nelson suggests.  But then there should
be a distinction made between things which are selectable only and things
which can be selected and dragged.  It is a complex set of combinations and
symbology which is too carved in stone.  I am sure that the Mac/Presentation
Manager/Windows/GEM/Workbench interface will eventually be replaced by a
simpler, more actively and animatedly graphic system that makes the Mac look
like MS-DOS.

Thomas Summerall
thomas@eleazar.dartmouth.edu