Re: top <rant>
Re: top <rant>
- Subject: Re: top <rant>
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 14:32:15 +0100
Michael Kelly wrote:
>
> Of course, using unix is like putting together a puzzle of a mirror.
>
>
Is it now? The interface is quite consistant (I daresay more so than the
>
MacOS).
Could be... the basic unix philosophy - lots and lots of little components
that each do one thing well, and which can be linked together to perform
more complex tasks - seems jolly nice.
OTOH, the user interface itself is terse and loaded with jargon. Pls bt
shrt f vwls. Strong signs of C mentality there. Sounds like VMS is better
in that department - after all, most of these characteristics are design
choices, rather than inherent limitations.
The other thing is opacity. Popping open a terminal window is easy enough,
but finding your way into the system isn't easy. There's very little by the
way of obvious landmarks: unix just assumes that you already know what
you're doing, and leaves you alone to get on with it. Fine if you do, but
seriously unhelpful if you don't. And if you're not comfortable maintaining
large, complex mental models of the system, moving around it isn't going to
be terribly smooth or natural.
And using the UI is like stepping back 30 years in time: this is not a
problem with text-based control per-se [text can have strengths that a pure
point-n-click interface doesn't], but rather a lack of innovation in the UI
itself. Presumably another case of "it's _good enough_ for _me_, so why
should _I_ change it?" But until it does change, it's going to remain a
Geek Tool. [1] [2]
And we'll continue to have these debates where CanonicalGeek states it's
all very simple and logical and easy to use,and CanonicalNonGeek - who
can't even see over that ridiculous six foot high doorstep, never mind
climb the thing and get through the door itself - isn't going to believe a
word of it.
>
It's been around for 20+ years and has worked fine. In fact, it's been
>
doing what the MacOS (recent developments notwithstanding) could never even
>
_think_ of doing. And manpages load in about a twentieth of the time of MacOS
>
help ;)
Urk, yeah. I _loathe_ that stupid Help browser. Appallingly slow to launch.
You'd think _somebody_ at Apple ought to be capable of figuring how to keep
a background help process running so that it can pop to the fore at a
moment's notice. I'm sure the old help system was never like this, and
never hogged the foreground either.
Oh, and don't even get me started on the OS X help, with its STUPID
ANNOYING SLOW logos at the top of the page. In my mind's eye, these are
translated into funny questions about the airspeed velocity of fully-laden
swallows, but once that joke wears off I don't know what I'm going to do.
Go postal, probably. I really don't like being made to feel I'm a moron.
>
Michael, who is writing this with vi running in Terminal in OS X.
Ahhh, a *vi* user... no comment needed then. ;)
*ducking and running*
has (who is writing this with Eudora in OS 9, where life is much simpler)
[1] Although graphical UIs have nothing to crow about, having stagnated
over the last 20 years as well.
[2] Perhaps an opportunity to fuse the two and see if anything interesting
is born of it? Keyboard-driven, graphical-display environments, perhaps?
--
http://www.barple.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk -- The Little Page of AppleScripts
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