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From: rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <10559@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 27-Nov-87 08:55:25 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.10559
Posted: Fri Nov 27 08:55:25 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 21:37:17 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
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   From: Ed Gould 

   I, too, want an expert-user interface while recognizing the need for
   a naive-user interface.  The problem I've seen with most of the naive-user
   systems is that there's no reasonable migration path from that
   interface to the experts' one.  That is, there's no way for someone
   to move on from being a beginner without learning a completely different
   mechanism for interacting with the system.

   Some attempts at solving this sort of problem have been clumsy (e.g.,
   the "edit" and "ex" interfaces for editing text), while others have
   just been bad (no example springs to mine:  I try to forget them).

I really don't think the edit/ex distinction is clumsy. All it seems to
do is turn off the `magic' variable, as novices are usually unaware of
the intricacys of regular expressions.

In fact, this might be an excellent solution for the shell; implement
a `magic' variable which is set depending on what name the shell
was invoked under.


   Ed Gould              mt Xinu, 2560 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
   {ucbvax,uunet}!mtxinu!ed    +1 415 644 0146

   "`She's smart, for a woman, wonder how she got that way'..."

A far cry from your quality/equality statement.

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
	Edwin Meese made me wear CORDOVANS!!