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Simplicity In the Age Of The GUI
evenprime writes: "Wired is running a story on Mark Hurst's extremely retro GoodEasy computing environment, and how it's old fashioned *nix approach to computing -- flat text, small simple programs that can be chained together -- increases user productivity" It's an interesting, hyper-simple approach, though any user outside of Mark's agency would have to apply some creative adaption. Every few months, I try to re-organize and simplify the documents and programs on my system, this looks like a good experiment for the next time.
My wife uses our Mac at home. She clutters her desktop with icons, rarely empties the trash can unless I tell her it's essential, and (like the article says) never looks for more than one way to do a task, once she's found a way that works.
My office email is filled with people mailing MS Word documents to me for Web-related projects. Often there's nothing in these documents but plain text and some bolded topic headlines. If I try to convert them to HTML to make my job easier, it doesn't work, because MS litters Word-generated HTML with styles and nonstandard tags that only IE5 can understand, all to make the Web page look as much like the Word doc as possible.
Friends use instant messenging to send me short, two-sentence "hi"s throughout the day. Half of them use brightly-colored backgrounds, harshly-contrasting text colors, and hard-to-read fonts because they look cool to them. They rarely use good spelling or punctuation to make sentences easier to read. "KISS" is a slogan that has never occurred to them. They probably never empty their desktop trash, either.
All these people have something in common: they don't think like a computer. It doesn't occur to them that searching for data is easier if everything is in plain text, or that organizing your files into directories makes them easier to archive and find later, or that removing all the pretty colors and fonts and complicated layouts would make it easier for others to read what they've written. They're just here to have fun.
They're the reason for XP's Luna and MacOS's Aqua. Pretty colors and gradients don't help anyone get the job done, but it makes the computer more "friendly" and less computer-like.
Meanwhile, I send all my IM's in high-contrast colors and sans-serif fonts. I email plain text whenever possible and RTF whenever it's not. I organize my files pathologically so that I don't have to throw old things away to find new things. And my desktop background picture is only two colors: medium blue and navy, so it doesn't distract or take half a minute to redraw whenever I minimize my browser.
Because I do think like a computer. I like plain, readable text; I solve problems logically; and (unfortunately) I have a "stateless" memory which loses track of one thing as soon as it starts another. Keeping everything in neat lines and plainly-marked boxes is the only way for me to get any work done.
But if I didn't spend 8-12 hours a day in front of a computer screen, I probably wouldn't know that. I'd probably prefer the pretty colors and chaotic fonts, too.
It doesn't. But then, that's like saying that a saw is a lousy tool because it won't drive a nail easily. And a mouse and keyboard in a GUI is (IMO) a horrible tool to produce music. That's why we have MIDI keyboards and hardware mixing boards that interface to computers. And why we still sell guitars, violins and flutes in the age of computers. The slight nuances that I can add completely intuitively with a fretboard far outstrip the control you can have with a mouse interface.
That is not to say that purely electronic music is not good, but even people like Chip Davis, Trent Reznor and Wanda Carlos use all sorts of dirty tricks and analog processing to create their music, not just a mouse.
The right tool for the job... that's the point here.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
All these people have something in common: they don't think like a computer. It doesn't occur to them that searching for data is easier if everything is in plain text, or that organizing your files into directories makes them easier to archive and find later, or that removing all the pretty colors and fonts and complicated layouts would make it easier for others to read what they've written. They're just here to have fun.
The reverse is also true, y'know. Most UIs need to be redesigned (hence Luna and Aqua) because they weren't made to work with someone who thinks like a person. Specifically a business person.
Y'know, someone where the trash is emptied regularly, where chatting is a way of life, and where things are filed long-term, but they're also kept short-term on the desk--not because they're filed there, but because they stay there because you *haven't* filed them.
The ideal would actually be the best of both worlds. Filters that can convert an e-mail attachment at a single command. A switch to filter out your "buddy's" preferences. And a way to have files you open and don't "file" head to the desktop, where they're periodically "saved" as a backup.
Too bad we'll never get that ideal.
IMHO
(From SF fandom via Usenet) In My Humble Opinion. Also seen in variant forms such as IMO, IMNSHO (In My Not-So-Humble Opinion) and IMAO (In My Arrogant Opinion).
a violin is no substitute for a computer either. There is no Drum and Bass violin music
Again, the point is: The right tool for the job. Trying to draw a wave form for the vocal lines of Pie Jesu would be ludicrous (*if* you're going for a human feel), but the Mighty Steven Hawking is damn cool. Jimi Hendrix's legendary performance of the US National Anthem is great, as is Lords of Acid's Sexy Space Chorale, which wouldn't be the same without computer use.
You're talking to someone who spent months on Amiga and PCs using various software and hand assembling MOD files (or before that, did 6502 asm to generate Star Trek themes on the Apple ][). I'm well aware of the fact that computers can generate music in ways that acoustic inturments cannot.
The point is - right tool for the job. Keeping my phone book drawn in the gimp would work. I keep it in a text file, and grep -i for names. There are a myriad of "right tools" and "wrong tools"... I use Konqueror to browse, and often wget files. All of this proves the *authors* point that you use the tools you got used to rather than what might be better or faster.
Music wasn't the best path to go down... the thread will invariably wind up somewhere devolving into a debate on shielding on patch cords. ;)
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Evan (Who was up all night, and shuddered when he read the ramble above).
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
"All these people have something in common: they don't think like a computer."
This reminds me of economists, who have spent 30 years building theories of human behaviour based on utility maximization and rational choice. When they finally realize that real humans are neither utility maximizers nor particularly rational, rather than change their theories they get mad at the humans for not behaving the way they "should"!
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