Re: January meeting

[Al Hudson <nospam [at] york.ac.uk>]

Just had to get my oar in ;))

On Mon, 10 Jan 2000, Craig [at] currantbun wrote:

> I completely agree! I use StarOffice for pretty much all my college
> work, because I know that when I bring home a Word document, it will work.

StarOffice is good for people coming from Windows environments. But what
annoys me about people coming from windows (heh, this will kick some dust
up ;) is that they expect everything to be windows-like, including all the
misgivings, and show a singular unwillingness to try new stuff (I'm going
to clarify this later, just in case you're fuming at that last sentance).
Why people would rather use Word, for example, to process text-based
documents, e.g. thesis'/thesi (?), over LyX is absolutely beyond. Firstly,
the LyX output is about 200 times better than anything Word does. The
documents word produces look stunningly amateurish in comparison. TeX
output looks stunningly professional. But this insistance on WYSIWYG
(stranging being removed from the internet, witness XML, wonder why?)
clouds peoples' opinions.

> My point is, the issue is not ease of use as such, but a difference to
> what people are used to which instills fear into their hearts, Don't ask
> me explain why, I don't know either!

I think the reason is 'scar tissue'. Where the user has been whipped by
the MS software so many times that they fear change, lest it just be
another whipping. Alan Cooper's book 'The Inmates are Running the Asylum'
is exception in it's description of this circumstance. And it basically
boils down to the fact that the Windows interface sucks pretty bad, as do
the Linux graphical interfaces, which suck bad but less than most other
stuff. The whole user interface concepts which pieces of software like
KDE, GNOME, Win, etc. base their interactions on are thoroughly broken.

One good open source project that I would gladly join in on, if anyone
started it: actual user interface design for linux. Designing new
interactions for current software, etc. Even right down to saving files on
the linux filing system. Who finds the filing system easy to use? Sure,
it's easier than the MS system (which has the whole A:, B:, C:, etc.
stuff, awful) 'cos it's flat, but still I often find myself trudging
around the filesystem looking for stuff. If I'm doing a graphic in the
GIMP, the GIMP should remember where I put my files, not me. Computers are
for menial, repetitive work - stuff like remembering where files are.
Talking of bad interfaces, the GIMP... no Alex, stop...

If you ever get a chance to read HCI books, have a good look. A lot of
this stuff is what Cooper refers to as 'Dancing Bear-ware': people who
create these pieces of rubbish point at the bear and exclaim, 'Look, it
dances!'. We don't notice the difference until we witness Wayne Sleep,
Riverdance, et al, and notice there is a heck of a lot more to dancing
than some shuffling beast.

My 2 euros worth anyway ;))

Alex.

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