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From: davidra@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (David A. Rabson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.editors
Subject: Idea for new MacIntosh Editor
Message-ID: <5024@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 88 15:39:12 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Theory Center, Cornell U., Ithaca NY
Lines: 80

I was recently talking to an acquaintance of mine who was complaining about
learning to use one of those supposedly easy-to-learn editors, Word Perfect.
The problem, I soon realized, was the lack of an internal logic, an ideology
of editing, or better yet, an entire ideology of the user interface.  The
MacIntosh has addressed this need admirably, but no one, as far as I can
tell, has yet implemented an editor entirely in conformity with the MacIntosh
philosophy.  I would like to propose just such an editor, which I will call
MacWordMasterPerfectStar.

One of the more confusing aspects of using the MacIntosh for the beginner is
the complexity of the hierarchical file structure.  Most novices find it
difficult to understand the difference between files and folders, and named
icons can be intimidating.  MacWordMasterPerfectStar avoids confusion by
eliminating all such computereese concepts: old documents are simply left
lying on the desktop at full size so the user can tell which is which.

What many first-time users find most difficult to deal with on the MacIntosh
(or any computer) is the keyboard.  Every keyboard is slightly different
from every other, and it just gets too confusing to remember.  Even the
letter keys are in confusing places--who ever thought of putting E next
to W next to Q?  MacWordMasterPerfectStar does away with the keyboard 
entirely: absolutely everything is controlled by the mouse.  A pull-down
menu includes an alphabet submenu


                              ----------------------
                              |  Graphic Shapes    |
                              |  Special Symbols   |
                              |  Alpha--------------------------------
                              |  Numbe|   select letter with mouse   |
                              --------|  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ  |
                                      |  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz  |
                                      |______________________________|

from which every letter, upper and lower case, is available.  The
user points to the letter he or she wants, clicks down the mouse button
to "grab" it, then moves the mouse into the page area and releases
the mouse button at the point at which he wishes to place the letter.
It should be noted that, unlike conventional type-setting systems,
where there is only a finite number of metal letters sitting in the
tray, the MacWordMasterPerfectStar "tray" of movable print is 
inexhaustible.  A user could cover the entire page with the letter "e"
and never worry about running out.

An early version of MacWordMasterPerfectStar included a feature whereby
the user could line up all the type on the page by clicking the mouse
button twice; alpha testing, however, showed that many people had
trouble understanding when to click once and when twice.  We remembered
how early predecessors of the MacIntosh had mice with three keys, and
how, in a similar way, users could never remember which to hit when, so
we went one step further and eliminated the troublesome defect of
"click once" versus "click twice."  All MacWordMasterPerfectStar mouse
clicks are treated the same way.  This meant abandoning the line-up-type
feature, but after only a little practice, the user will have no
difficulty at all getting the letters on the page to line up neatly
and straight--all with the mouse.

The final user-friendly feature we decided to implement in
MacWordMasterPerfectStar was a highly simplified way of saving documents
on the floppy disk.  Users told us how they hated not knowing which
document was on what disk and in what folder ... and so on. 
MacWordMasterPerfectStar eliminates all confusion by putting exactly
one saved document on each disk.  The user merely writes the name
of the document on the disk label, and then the document is no harder
to find than any conventionally-prepared piece of paper.  Moreover,
a single MacIntosh disk can hold the equivalent of hundreds of pages of 
paper but is much smaller.

Finally, it should be noted that MacWordMasterPerfectStar operates
quite strictly on the popular what-you-see-is-what-you-get (wysiwyg)
system.  Everything from the placement and rotation of letters to
the screen resolution and page size is precisely duplicated when
the document is sent to the printer.  There are never any "hidden
commands" or complicated formatting procedures to master--everything
is moved by the mouse and looks the same on the printer as on the
screen.

For information on ordering MacWordMasterPerfectStar, write to

			devnull@kgbvax.peristroika.com