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Date:      Fri, 24 May 1996 01:00:01 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu>
To:        Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk>
Cc:        Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>, chuckr@glue.umd.edu, freebsd-chat@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: editors
Message-ID:  <Pine.NEB.3.93.960524002616.448F-100000@Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199605231313.OAA23966@cadair.elsevier.co.uk>

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On Thu, 23 May 1996, Paul Richards wrote:

> I'm not arguing from the position that learning vi should be an
> initiation procedure for getting into unix, I'm trying to get the point
> across that changing the editor isn't going to change the fundamental
> nature of what unix is, it just prolongs the point before people
> realise what they're getting in to.

Two points:

1. There is an assumption in this statement that new unix users
   are new computer users.  It may very well be that many people
   now coming to unix have extensive of high level computer 
   experience and are perfectly capable of dealing with
   the complexities of unix.

2. Some experiences in life are difficult and unpleasnt.  Just to
   make sure nobody gets a rude shock, maybe we should see to it
   that all of life is difficult and unpleasnt.  People would be
   much better off that way.


While there are a fair number of genuinely difficult things in
any sophisticated operating system, unix also provides users with
an array of difficulties that are simply due to lousy design.  A
user who would ordinairly be able to cope with the inherently
difficult things may very well be overwhelmed by the combination
of the difficult things with the lousy design.

Instead of prolonging meeting the real complexity of unix, the
hurdle of something like vi may be what pushes the total system
complexity above the threshold of what the user can deal with. 
The result is that they go off and use NT or Netware, which pay
a little attention to HCI research, when unix may have been a
better choice for the user's application.

No, changing the editor isn't going to change the nature of unix,
but it is a start at making the power a little more accessible.

-john

== jfieber@indiana.edu ===========================================
== http://fallout.campusview.indiana.edu/~jfieber ================




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