Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!steinmetz!dawn!stpeters From: stpeters@dawn.steinmetz (Dick St.Peters) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes Message-ID: <7995@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> Date: Fri, 27-Nov-87 15:00:21 EST Article-I.D.: steinmet.7995 Posted: Fri Nov 27 15:00:21 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 23:31:17 EST References: <1721@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> <1621@megatest.UUCP> Sender: root@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP Reply-To: dawn!stpeters@steinmetz.UUCP (Dick St.Peters) Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY Lines: 23 Keywords: Novice and Expert, Programmer and End User In article <1819@pdn.UUCP> reggie@pdn.UUCP (George Leach) writes: >One pet peeve of mine >over the past several years has been the complaints voiced by people about >the cryptic UNIX UI. Well is it anymore cryptic than any other real work >Operating System? How about MVS? Or VMS? It's a pet peeve of mine too, but one I understand. I can't comment on MVS, but UNIX vs. VMS is an everyday issue here, and no, UNIX is not more cryptic than VMS *as_used_by_experts*. However, for the novice user, things are different. For a novice wanting to see the contents of file junk.txt, it is comforting to say "type junk.txt", which resembles English. Watch an expert, though, and s/he will use "t/p junk", as cryptic as any UNIX command. (The VMS interface is not always so friendly to novices: name the file "junk" instead of "junk.txt", and a novice may never figure out how to read it. As for expert interfaces, rename the expert's .emacs file to sav.emacs and watch him/her try to recover.) -- Dick St.Peters GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@ge-crd.arpa uunet!steinmetz!stpeters