From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: Randolph Fritz Message-ID: References: <20010814125559.826F319A3E@mail.cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] User Interface Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 08:57:39 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: e31e908c-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 In article <20010814125559.826F319A3E@mail.cse.psu.edu>, rob pike wrote: >> The editors, sam and acme are virtually unusable. > > Many people disagree, even feel the opposite, that they are among > the easiest-to-use editors around. > >> Why is it that such a simple task as editing the contents of a textfile >> must cause so much pain? > > I don't hear many yelps where I work and essentially everyone uses > either sam or acme. I suspect you don't know how to use them. > > A criticism I will accept is that there is inadequate documentation > explaining how to use them well. Try reading the associated papers, > rather than just the man pages. They help somewhat. > I think a key point has been hit, albeit glancingly: computer scientists are willing to study a system before using it; most people--including most software professionals, these days--are not. The original usability goal of the Mac was 30 minutes from a newbie sitting down to beginner-level productivity. (Without, I think, reference to any manuals, though with quite a lot of text on-screen.) A much gentler learning curve, yes? Now there is no requirement that Plan 9 be accessible without extensive study. However, I suspect there are good reasons to look at these issues more closely. If nothing else, it seems to me there are interesting design process issues in the area, and working on it might open up interesting research topics. I've seen a lot of sneering at the Mac, but, still--30 minutes to usability? That's an impressive design achievement, and it surprises me it doesn't engender more respect and emulation. It also seems to me that aiming at a gentler learning curve for software developers might attract a broader group of software researchers to Plan 9 and--forgive me if I have this wrong--isn't that one of the reasons Plan 9 is being published on the internet with source code? It would be an interesting research topic for someone who wasn't busily studying architecture and building science... :-) Randolph