Re: [9fans] User Interface

[anothy@cosym.net]

// ...I have never seen a more awkward user  interface since twm.

i'm not sure how much of this to attribute to lack of familiarity and how
much to simple personal preference. the GUI is definatly stylistically very
different from any i've seen from any other lineage (X, MS, Mac, etc).
but it is, in my mind, what a UI should be: exactly enough to facilitate
you doing your work, without getting in your way or distracting you.

// ...sam and acme are virtually unusable. Why is it that such a simple
// task as editing the contents of a textfile must cause so much pain?

what specifically is your complaint? i've found sam very easy to learn,
and have taught it to several non-Plan9 (even some non-techie) folks,
with good results. acme is a bit more learning, it's true, but you get a
bunch more out of it (IMHO). and _certainly_ either one gives much
more than any Win32 editor i've seen (well, except sam ☺).

// Why is there not just one single command to create a new user...

if this is a big issue, it's quite easy to script. the commands are both
consistant and simple. the seperation comes, basically, from the fact
that you're really doing seperate operations: adding the user to the
auth database, then adding the user to the file server. both arn't
technically required, although normal operation requires them.

again, the point here is that the commands are simple enough so that
if them being seperate is an issue, you can easialy script them into
something appropriate for your site or installation.

// In my opinion every task performed on a computer [...] should be
// done with the aid of a simple, intuitive,  point- and- click, graphical
// user interface.

well, here it just sounds like we're at a philosophical diference. the plan
9 community tends strongly to believe that there are many tasks that
are ill-suited to GUI interaction, and are much more efficiently done
via CLI and scripted interfaces. administrative tasks, as in the examples
provided by other responses, are probably the clearest examples, but
others abound.

i'm also reminded of a quote i read somewhere but can't place:
	"The only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned."
-α.