Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!umd5!brl-adm!adm!rbj@icst-cmr.arpa 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 Lines: 34 From: Ed GouldI, 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!!