Re: January meeting

[nospam [at] south-of-heaven.demon.co.uk]

> Oh dear, I'm disagreeing with everyone today :(. But I disagree ;) What is
> power? I define power as, 'the ability for the majority of users to be
> productive', and if application a is more powerful than application b,
> that signifies that the majority of users of application a are more
> productive. Don't confuse power with quantity of features.

It's a slight difference in terminology. I would define power as simply
what a program allows you to do. By that yardstick, Word is a poweful
program. It is also buggy and has a foul interface - therefore it's not
particularly productive. Power IMO is letting you do something, not necesarily
letting you do it easily or well.

> I don't agree with that either. Example: to configure a web server such as
> Apache, you need to delve into three (one) configuration files. In
> reality, all you need are two settings: directory, and port. I could write
> a webserver that any Harry could install and use in two minutes flat, no
> problems whatsoever. It's called inflecting the interface, and it's what
> user interface design is all about.

Um, that would allow you to use all of Apaches features. You've been using
version 0.01 I think. :)
Apache has a LOT more to it than that, and I'm sure you know it.
Yes, any Harry could install it, but anyone with half a brain would be driven
mad by the lack of feature X or Y.

> Heh, I hope you don't hold me in that first category ;) BTW, for a really
> ugly interface, try the Blender. It's so unfriendly it makes me laugh.
> (Sorry Photoshop, I *have* just though of a worse interface!)

Must agree with you on the blender point. It's foul.

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