On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 4:42 AM, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > > When the Mac came out, at work we had a variety of computers, each with a > different keyboard, with the backspace key in a different spot on every one > of them. However, on every one of them, CTRL-H would work as backspace. > Sometime around '84 or '85 I was throwing a party, and having heard of the > wonderful things you could do with a Mac, I wanted to write up the > invitation on it, using the fancy fonts and all of those good things. That > evening was probably my most unpleasant computer user interface experience > ever. The software was completely counter intuitive, the keyboard didn't > even have a control key, and when I did print out the invitations, using the > fancy font, they looked pretty crappy.
The very first time I ever touched a Mac was during high school. Probably 89 or 90. My previous computer experience included a VIC-20, Apple IIe machines in junior high, and PCs (we had a PC at home). The computers available to me at school were all in the library. There were probably 20 or 30 PCs and half as many Macs. I don't recall which ones specifically, but they were one of the beige toaster varieties. I needed to edit a text file, so I carried the 3.5 inch floppy disk to the library only to find that all of the PCs were taken. Surprisingly, none of the Macs were in use. I sat down at one, inserted the disk and with a little fumbling, found a text editor. After finishing up I reached for the (non-existent) eject button. Then I started digging through the menus. I spent more time trying to get my disk back than it took to edit the file. The librarian's expertise was required to remove the disk. I watched in horror as she dragged it to the little picture of a trash can. I didn't touch a Mac again until OS X was released. That said, Their influence on UI design over the last 10 years or so is unmistakeable. I doubt my little Android device or Gnome desktop would be nearly as useable/pretty were it not for the folks at Apple. -- Scott Loveless Camp Hill, PA USA http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ __o _'\<,_ (*)/ (*) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
