On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 12:25:18PM -0600, Rodd Ahrenstorff wrote:
> On Monday 28 January 2002 2:02 pm, you wrote:

Please look into fixing your attributions so that replies to list
posts state the name of the person you're replying to instead of "you
wrote".

> > they just want to press a button and let the computer figure out what
> > the problem is, what the solution is and implement the solution.
> 
> Self diagnostics...now that would be cool!

I believe Florin was referring to the problems that the computer is being
used to solve, not problems with the computer itself.  e.g., just saying
"Computer, prepare my expense report" instead of having to keep track
of receipts and compile them into a report yourself.

Not that self-diagnostics wouldn't be cool...

> > GUI/CL is irrelevant. I, as a _USER_ cannot spend time wandering the
> > menu system in search for the bold command, or move the mouse ever so
> > slowly over the tool buttons so I can read the tooltip and hope I get
> > the desired one...

> Nothing on the CL is 
> visable unless you know how to access it.  It's simply not intuitive.

$ fortune -m nipple
...
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple.  After that, it's all learned.
        -- Bruce Ediger, bediger at teal.csn.org, on X interfaces
...

> I find 
> the majority of tools I need from an application are usually staring me in 
> the face on one of several top-layer toolbars.  

And nothing on a top-level toolbar is obvious unless you've learned
what it means and, as Florin said, discoving what they mean involes
either "wandering the menu system in search for the bold command" or
"mov[ing] the mouse ever so slowly over the tool buttons so I can read
the tooltip".  Looking over my Netscape toolbar, how obvios would it
be to a first time user that a flashlight (or the old standard,
binoculars) means "search", a weird curly arrow means "reload page",
or that the little blue box with a white handle is supposed to be a
printer?

It may not require _as much_ learning as the CL, but that's still all
learned.

> In my opinion it is the inevitable solution.  Successful products don't 
> increase complexity for users.  

Glad to hear you're so confident that Windows XP and Digital Rights
Management will fail.

As far as that ScopeWare link you've been throwing around, let me
just say...

Oh, boy!  A UI that puts everything into a single, undifferentiated
(but searchable) pile and rearranges it every time I look at something!

If that works for you, great, but I think I'll pass.  I can see it having
a future as an alternative method for accessing hierarchal structures,
but I don't think it has what it takes to become a new interface standard.
(Oh, and I wonder how long it would take to duplicate their "patented
technology" with `ls -u` and `grep -r`...)

-- 
When we reduce our own liberties to stop terrorism, the terrorists
have already won. - reverius

Innocence is no protection when governments go bad. - Tom Swiss