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Date:      Sat, 16 Mar 2002 15:41:30 -0600
From:      Chip Morton <tech_info@threespace.com>
To:        FreeBSD Chat <chat@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Free BSD
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20020316152302.01b33d00@threespace.com>
In-Reply-To: <3C93B514.9AB4BB7E@mindspring.com>
References:  <4.3.2.7.2.20020315181331.01b26160@threespace.com> <20020314204235.L152-100000@pogo.caustic.org> <15505.28725.937368.158235@guru.mired.org> <20020314204235.L152-100000@pogo.caustic.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20020315181331.01b26160@threespace.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20020315190230.01b2a4f8@threespace.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20020316100234.01b21638@threespace.com>

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At 03:11 PM 3/16/2002, Terry Lambert wrote:
>I think Jef is arguing for good standards, more than poor
>standards, but primarily for standards over none.

Perhaps.  But his argument loses merit if he chooses to completely dismiss 
the standards that currently exist.  The masses simply don't move that quickly.


>It's a matter of perspective: "one man's mead is another
>man's poison".

Exactly.  And Jef Raskin needs to realize that not everyone wants to drink 
his mead. :-)


> > Because frankly, I think that he deserved to get his ass
> > beat for changing somebody's color scheme to red on red and forcing them to
> > have to reinstall it.  If that's his best argument for why we don't need
> > color in the GUI, then I rest my case.
>
>No, that was also a reductio ad absurdum argument.

No, that was his statement of something that he actually did to someone's 
computer to bolster his argument.  And if his argument rests on the most 
absurd case he can find, it's probably without much merit.


>Even if you agree with none of his other premises, you have
>to agree that an interface that permits converting the
>product from its intended use to a doorstop is a poorly
>designed interface.

That's like saying that a knife is a poorly designed utensil because you 
can cut yourself with it.  Every interface known to man has the ability to 
be used for something unanticipated and potentially stupid.  But throwing 
the baby out with the bathwater ain't the answer.


>It's not about monochrome.  Just because he designed the
>most critically acclaimed user interface of all time on
>a machine incapable of displaying color, doesn't mean
>that he would have limited himself to monochrome, had the
>choice been available.

Again, I point out that no one is currently shipping "the most critically 
acclaimed user interface of all time" any more, so what does that say about 
it's modern-day value?


>In any case, developing a new window manager would not serve
>to solve the problem he's pointing at, any more than denying
>the existance of the problem solves it.

I'm not denying that improvements can be made.  I'm denying that Jef 
Raskin's assertion that we're all ass-backwards for using our current 
interfaces and that his proposals are all dead-on correct.  Admittedly he 
raises some good points, but they're largely his opinion, and I respect his 
opinion for what it is.

<< Chip Morton >>


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