Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 13:48:40 +0200 (MET DST) From: grog@lemis.de (Greg Lehey) To: jfieber@indiana.edu (John Fieber) Cc: chat@FreeBSD.org (FreeBSD Chat) Subject: Re: FreeBSD keyboard Message-ID: <199607141148.NAA21827@allegro.lemis.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.94.960713151127.18545A-100000@Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu> from "John Fieber" at Jul 13, 96 03:39:25 pm
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John Fieber writes: > > On Sat, 13 Jul 1996, J Wunsch wrote: > >> 'cause fewer and fewer people know how to use a keyboard. >> >> That's why kindergarten icon games like winloose have the reputation >> of being ``user-friendly''. > > It has nothing to do with typing ability. It has everything to > do with the basic fact that humans are far better at > recognition than recall. Recall may be more efficient, but only > comes after a great time investment in memorization. For > infrequent users, or infrequent tasks, recall will never be as > efficient as recognition. While I agree with this, I'm not sure it's relevant. > Unix systems trivialize recognition enabled interfaces, Windows, > and to a greater degree Mac, trivialize recall enabled > interfaces. A vast majority of the computing market has made it > pretty clear that if a compromise must be made, it will be in > favor of recognition. No doubt about that. However, we're looking at a different problem here. There's no conflict between a touch-typist's keyboard and a hunt-and-pecker's keyboard. The touch-typist looks for positions, the hunt-and-pecker looks for the keycaps (that's why they're reverting to ideograms like this Microsoft key for people who can't read). There's absolutely *no* reason to put a switch like CapsLock where it can be used in conjunction with other keys. Equally, there's absolutely *no* reason to put keys like the F keys where it's difficult to use them in conjunction with other keys. I believe even Microslop uses things like Alt-F4, don't they? How does a touch typist do that on one of these "ergonomic" keyboards? > It is important enough that people will put up with cheesy operating > systems that crash on a regular basis if that is the only way to get > it. People put up with Microslop because they're uneducated, not because it's the only way to get recognition-based user interfaces. I think the real problem we have at the moment is that the computer market is no longer technology-driven: it's market driven instead. Why did they change the keyboard layout to put the F keys up the top again? Some marketeer decided it would sell better that way. You can bet he can't type. BTW, what does this Microslop key do? Greg
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