Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 15:21:48 +0000 From: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com> To: "Christopher Martin at Home" <psycho@keyworld.net> Cc: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au>, james huckle <james@xch.net>, "'FreeBSD Newbie Submission'" <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FW: Email [was: Squid will that be fried ?] Message-ID: <351BC40B.6C272B56@uk.radan.com> References: <199803271427.PAA12763@mail.keyworld.net>
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Christopher Martin at Home wrote:
>
> >
> > If there isn't, then there should be, if only to try and stem the
> > creeping malaise that is Microsoft from imposing it's "standards" on us
> > all. One of the problems though is the definition of "basic standards",
> > indeed standards in general.
> >
> > > I think this is a quality issue.
> > >
>
> By standards, I mean modularity but job-determined functionality, design
> etc. that result in a tool doing what it is meant to do for the volume it
> is meant to handle and as economically as possible with minimal user
> confusion and training require. I.e. Defininitely nothing less, but nothing
> more for Pete's sake.
>
> I can assure you from my experience with Win 95 app first time users is
> that the "easy to use" gui win 95 presents now has such a number of options
> and menu commands that it takes even myself (who I consider to be an
> experienced intuitive user) ages to find the right option. Then you find
> that it is just there for mkt purposes but it is limited anyway e.g. inbox
> filtering of MS Internet Mail. Another problem is the gui is losing the
> reason behhind its inception: user psychology studies for best intuitive
> interpretation of menubars are being defeated because people get used to a
> particular tool location in a menu in v.3.0 only to find it is somewhere
> else in v.4.0.
>
> When will they learn?
>
Absolutely correct. The original idea of the GUI was to provide an
intuitive interface that removed the need for users to learn large
numbers of (often complex) keyboard commands (remember WordStar?).
However software, particularly PC s/w, has got so complex that it needs
several tool bars (look at Word 97) full of buttons which, in Windows,
are 16x16 pixels. So, how do you create meaningful, intuitive 'pictures'
to go on these buttons for all the functions they represent in just
16x16 pixels? Answer, you can't, so MS invents 'tool tips' which mean
that now when the cursor moves over a button a little box pops up with
*words* in it which, to my mind at least, defeats the object of a
GRAPHICAL interface.
Sun's Open Look interface, which I sit in front of all day, has words on
the buttons instead of 'pictures', OK so that means it's not strictly
graphical, but learning things is a hell of a lot easier. When I first
started using e-mail I used mailtool and never had any trouble achieving
what I wanted to, but if the buttons were Windows style how could you
create pictures that could intuitively represent the subtle differences
between "Reply to sender", "Reply to sender, quoted", "Reply to all",
"Reply to all, quoted" in 16x16 pixels?
> I think the only problem with Unix is the admin side.
I guess that depends on the environment you're in. In a work environment
not having GUI functions for all the admin tasks (e.g. Control Panel) is
a pretty good way of preventing 'ordinary' users messing about with
things. Most Unixes (commercial ones at least) do have GUI tools for
admin though - admintool, sam, smit etc. so they are there if you want
them but they don't appear on the desktop by default, unlike Windows.
--
Mark Ovens *====================================*
CNC Apps Engineer | One of the main causes of the fall |
Radan Computational Ltd | of the Roman Empire was, that |
mailto:marko@uk.radan.com | lacking a zero, they had no way of |
| indicating the successful |
| termination of their C programs |
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