Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
- Subject: Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
- From: Peter Duniho <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 10:42:04 -0700
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 09:32:01 -0400
From: Jeff LaMarche <email@hidden>
Subject: Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
[...] In many ways, Cocoa/Obj-C is an oddity, and certainly the
approaches
that Microsoft, Sun, and Apple have taken with their development tools
is different. Microsoft has architected .NET, especially (but not
only) Visual Basic, to lower the bar for learning the most common and
most basic tasks by hiding some of the complexity involved.
I agree with this statement. However, the conclusion is flawed.
As an accomplished programmer myself, part of what makes C#/.NET
programming so fun is the way that the language hides the
complexities that aren't important to me. The framework and the
language both encapsulate some fairly deep implementation details
that are powerful, and yet I don't have to waste time thinking about
them when I write code.
Philosophies will differ, but the fact that an environment is
approachable by beginners doesn't preclude its being favored by
experts. Some experts may love to always see the nitty-gritty
details, but plenty of others appreciate an environment where they
can stop worrying about them and instead apply their many years of
programming experience to the non-repetitive parts of their
implementations.
I hesitate to call .NET or especially Java "beautiful", but the fact
is even with whatever warts they have, there is a certain sense of
beauty that comes from having details common to every implementation
pushed down under the surface so that the programmer doesn't need to
think about them with every line of code they write.
Cocoa has beauty in its own way, and I want to emphasize that the
framework itself is certainly not an area of significant concern to
me, but the environment involves a lot more button-pushing, toggle-
flipping, etc. than it really needs to. Inasmuch as that causes me
to waste time doing things that the tools should be doing for me, I
find that undesirable.
Pete
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