On Mon, 20 Mar 2000, David Heremans wrote:
> You will have to learn to operate those programs and then they are fare
> more comfortable and flexible then al that GUI enabled stuff. But you
> have to be willing to learn how it works instead of going:
> "Need to read mail. No clicking. Don't want to read manuel. Hmm, 5
> seconds past. Hmm, still no read mail. Hmm proggie no good."
For some programs, that you use very often (mail reader, text editor), it
can be worth in to learn all the keys and options. For programs you use
infrequently, menus are more convenient.
By the way, keyboard shortcuts and mouse operations can be allowed in the
same program. For example, almost all GUI text editors allow keyboard
shortcuts for common operations like Cut, Paste and Save.
One type of GUI element that is overrated (in my opinion) are icons. If
you're new to a program, most icons are unrecognisable for you, menus are a
better choice in this case. If you know a program well, you will prefer
keyboard shortcuts to icons, because they are faster. So when are icons
useful? In my opinion, for relatively low frequency operations for somewhat
experienced to experienced users. For example: "send mail", "attachment",
"spell check" (I'm looking at my GUI mailer now).
About manuals:
Many manuals are not good, especially for people who are new to a program.
The first thing I want to know when I read a manual of a program I haven't
used before, is whether that program will do the task I want done. Some
manuals just start summarising command line switches or menu commands
without telling what the program is designed to do. Or the manual refers to
some standard that I'm not familiar with.
While I hate programs that treat me (the user) like an idiot, programs that
do the opposite (assume you know almost everything) are not user friendly
either. Too many command line programs make the latter mistake, which is
one of the reasons they have a reputation for not being user friendly.
Bye,
Maarten
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