Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 10:44:31 -0400 From: The Classiest Man Alive <ksmm@cybercom.net> To: chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: ATT Unix for Windows ! Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19970827104431.0097ce70@cybercom.net>
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At 11:55 PM 8/26/97 +0200, you wrote:
>J Wunsch shared with us:
>> As Peter Korsten wrote:
>>
>> [Visual C++, Makefiles, etc.]
>>
>> Of course, this is all my very personal opinion, but i'm sure quite a
>> number of people feel the same. This might explain to the VC++ etc.
>> users why there is so little `resonance' to IDE projects in a Unix
>> world. Once you got used to the Unix way, you don't miss the Visual
>> stuff. (Once you would be forced to return to that Visual stuff,
>> after you've been used to the Unix way, i'm sure i would *hate* it.)
>
> [snip, snip]
>
>So the developers may like a text interface, many people don't.
>And apart from all the marketing hype MS is creating, that's
>something to be considered - though very hard to solve.
What I've noticed is that the GUI environments tend to have easier learning
curves, but that in the long run, command lines with terse commands and
options tend to be more efficient for the experienced user. A good, simple
example of this is trying to copy groups of files with a graphical file
manager or a prompt. Finding out the options to recurse subdirectories and
observe time modification stamps would probably take longer than dragging
and dropping, but once you had the knowledge in your head, typing the
command probably takes less time than all the clicking and dragging
involved in the GUI approach. The mistake is in thinking that the two are
mutually exclusive.
Of course, this tends to create an attitude among very skilled programmers
that you can't accomplish to much with a mouse; command lines are the only
way to do *real* work. ("Why, back in my day, we didn't have no
mamby-pamby pointers and icons. Just ones and zeroes...") Unfortunately,
those most in need of a GUI interface (like me) don't have the skill to
create one, and those who do believe that anybody serious about their craft
doesn't need one.
On a slightly related note, there also seems to be a lot of Microsoft
player hating among UNIX-heads. Granted, there's not a lot of cutting edge
technology coming out of Redmond, but MS has mastered a technique that most
highly skilled programmers and shops are too proud to use--taking someone
else's good idea, combining it with their great marketing, and taking
ownership of the market. Rather than hating MS for bastardizing the
technology, I say that we take whatever good concepts from them that we can
and integrate it into out products. Use their own strategy against them.
Of course, a few mil in the bank wouldn't hurt, but we'll just do what we
can. :-)
My two bits,
K.S.
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