Dindling exponentially? Where are they all going? Perhaps systems are
getting
harder to use so professionals are lkess productive and we nee more ofthem?
That's a good question. Those few that are left refuse to be employed
permanently and usually work as consultants for large corporations here. You
won't find them working on the payroll, that's for sure.
In fact, I myself will do the same thing (again), once I perceive my tenure
is completed. And as long as I continue living where I live, I will not be
permanently employed.
So I guess the answer to your question is, no, the systems did not get
harder to use. It's just that all the people who do know how to use them
properly and effectively are wandering the country as freelancers.
Seriously, why should they care about an ancient implementation artefact?
Why isn't their PATH just set properly anyway so they can get right on and
do the work they're paid for?
Good question! Their PATH isn't set up properly because years ago,
engineering fancied themselves better and smarter than Sun's own engineers,
so they went to create "Solaris on steroids", which turned out to be a total
and complete mess that the organization is stuck supporting up to this
present day with Solaris 10. So the users have been left to their own
devices, and not really understanding the environment themselves, hacked it
all up.
Is it actually dumbing down? Or making things easier to use? My time - and
that of users and customers - is precious, and we should do everything we
can
to provide tools that aid users make the best use of their precious time.
Good graphical interfaces that can be used without effort do just that.
It would seem, based on this discussion, that the perception and time spent
doing a task is strictly linked with one's experience.
I am highly unproductive clicking around on pretty icons and buttons inside
of various GUI windows. I am much faster running commands from a shell.
Much, much faster.
Others seem to claim the opposite, at least as far as ease of use. And there
I totally and completely fail to comprehend how a GUI tool like "Nero" can
be easier to use than
cdrecord -v /var/tmp/MyImage.ISO
to be concrete.
(The downside to this argument is that most GUI interfaces - like most
CLI interfaces - are badly designed, user hostile, and don't really make
the user's life better. We shouldn't accept that, but should strive to make
tools that are easier to use and that users are comfortable with.)
As opposed to educating the user base?
(As an anecdote of marginal relevance to the original subject, I once tried
at home to put some images on a CD. The home PC was simply incapable
of doing this - it had numerous tools that cliamed to be able to do this,
both
bundled and unbundled. After a few failures it was starting to become a
challenge, so I persevered. Some applications had incomprehensible user
interfaces that made it impossible to do simple things like select the
files
I wanted; others refused to recognize the CD writer; the rest produced
coasters. In disgust I turned the Solaris box on and had written the CD
in a few minutes. But the command line was far harder than a well
designed GUI *should* have been.)
What was so hard about it?
The people with the talent to do the advanced stuff will do it anyway.
We keep this charade up, there won't be any left. Everybody will be turned
into consumers - plants.
Apparently encouraging people NOT to use their brains so that they could
concentrate on the "abstract" is nowdays called "progress", and those who
cry "the emperor is naked" are perceived as standing in the way of such.
Great future awaits the human race I see.
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