Ease of Use (Was: Re: APPLEVISION Monitor)

From: Douglas H. Quebbeman <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
Date: Tue May 7 06:48:23 2002

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Glen Goodwin" <acme_ent_at_bellsouth.net>
> To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 11:07 PM
> Subject: Re: APPLEVISION Monitor
>
> > > From: Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner <spc_at_conman.org>
> >
> > > So why do people expect to get immedate work out of a computer without
> > > training?
> >
> > Because Bill Gates said they could.
> >
> > Glen
> > 0/0
>
> Is it because of Bill, or because it's simply so?
>
> Dick

Twenty-eight years ago, I walked up to a Teletype ASR33
hooked to a Control Data 6500 and started writing BASIC
programs, and the closest thing to training I had was
to find a drawer containing some end-user documentation.

Five years later, on my first day of my first professional
full-time position as a programmer on a system I'd never
used before (a Prime), I was handed a magtape from another
system I'd used only once or twice (an HP 2000/Access system),
and before the day was over, had pulled the programs from
the tape and had several of them running.

But I'm a geek. At what cost have we dumbed-down the computer
so that nearly anyone can use it? And are you aware that in
the minds of marketing people, the market is *far* from
saturated, as there are still lots of people who never use
them and don't have them. So you can expect another order of
magnitude of dumbing-down...

-dq
Received on Tue May 07 2002 - 06:48:23 BST