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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <2585@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Nov-87 19:47:09 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.2585
Posted: Wed Nov 25 19:47:09 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Nov-87 00:42:10 EST
References: <2572@mmintl.UUCP> <1721@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> <3911@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT.
Lines: 33

In article <3911@pucc.Princeton.EDU> TDTRUE@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes:
|In article <2572@mmintl.UUCP>, franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes:
|>One of my favorite human interface design errors is in VM/CMS, where "i",
|>typed on a line by itself, destroys your image.  It stands for "ipl", you
|>see.  This happens even if you enter it on the command line of the editor.
| 
|Although VM/CMS has a number of flaws in its user interface, the
|one mentioned is not currently one of them.  Within the editor
|(XEDIT), 'i' puts you in 'INPUT MODE' to continuously enter lines
|of text.

Input mode is relatively new to XEDIT.  I think it had just become available
shortly before I switched jobs and stopped using the system.

|XEDIT also lets you set things so that a user must explicitly issue a
|command to the operating system.

Yes, and CMS lets you set things so that a user must explicitly issue a
command to CP.  Unless these are the default, they don't help the naive user.
They aren't the default.

|Outside the editor, 'i' or for that matter 'ipl' will just give
|you the error 'OPERAND MISSING OR INVALID'.  Of course, if you
|put any text after the I, the system will try to IPL with what
|you gave it . . . .

My memory may be faulty on this; I thought I remembered it clearing memory
first, and then checking for the operand.  On the other hand, what you
describe does sound familiar.  It's bad enough, anyhow.
-- 

Frank Adams                           ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Ashton-Tate          52 Oakland Ave North         E. Hartford, CT 06108