Derek Smithies wrote: > "the masses will never be ready for computers" is, I think, a copout, > as it allows > us programmers to get "lazy" and not strive for user interfaces that all > can use.
> Consider the automobile. It has relatively few controls, and almost > anybody can drive one. > There is a stop button, a "go" button, a start button, a direction > button, and a couple of indicator switches. > No knowledge of how the engine works is required. The car will run > reliably for hundreds of thousands of kms. > With complete absence of care (no oil changes for example) it will run > for years. With no water in the radiator, > it will still run (that was a mazda - it did stop at the lights, but the > engine could be restarted and it would carry on). > Compare that to the cars of yesteryear. You had levers for adjusting the > timing, the choke, the gears (and it was a > bit tricky to change gears as there was no synchromesh) and had to some > real knowledge of the car to make it work. > you even had to start it with a crank handle. Every few thousand miles, > the head had to be removed and the valves ground. The drivers of cars in > 1920 would shake their heads in dismay when they look at us. > So when I see controls disappearing from applications and going into the > system (like alsa->pulse) it is the same as > what happened in the auto industry. Controls are removed from the users > (cause they are dangerous) and > handled in a consistent and sane fashion by the OS. But that is because the masses are still not ready for the steam engine, let alone mechanical engineering in general. Seriously though, routers, cell phones, game consoles and much more all meet the technical requirements to be thought of as computers but don't get thought of as such because they're not meant to be used as such. Those are what the masses are prepared for. Machines that get marketed as "computers" are at heart built for programmers. That is why they are sold as such. -- Ryan McCoskrie North Canterbury, New Zealand sourcelinksnotes.comyr.com
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