From: utzoo!decvax!cca!Zellich@OFFICE-3@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.works Title: Re: Query : End user interface Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2035 Posted: Thu Jul 8 00:50:18 1982 Received: Fri Jul 9 01:31:44 1982 I definitely would \not/ go with a menu interface of any kind; even if it could be turned off when the user became familiar with the system. A "menu" that can be requested by the user at any time with a question-mark or some such, is a different thing entirely. Menus tend to be quite cumbersome when the system has been learned, and only get in the way of an experienced user; if turned off, then you end up with a user interface that is too different from what the user just learned, which isn't such a hot idea. I don't like the UNIX style of commands because of the mnemonic (or sometimes not so mnemonic! - but that doesn't have to be a problem with an interface you're designing yourself) rather than English commands. I \do/ like the pipes in UNIX, and would like to find some way of implementing them in a system that uses English command words with single-character-recognition/command-word-completion. A good example of the style of command interaction I think is good is the one used by Tymshare's Augment (or SRI Int'l or ISI's NLS). NLS (or Augment) is a difficult system to learn, but that's because of the new concepts required by using structured files, not because of the style of command interaction. It is a single-character- recognition/command-completion system, styled in a Verb-Noun pattern (using a mouse to point to objects on the crt). -Rich Zellich -------