Re: type of users in a unix environment

[John Summerfield <summer OS2 ami com au>]

h v kleinhout student tue nl said:
> Starting users like programs that are not only very userfriendly but
> also got a very limited number of options. All those buttons and
> specific features make it too difficult, mainly because it's too much
> information. 


More precisely, they like programs that are easy to learn.

I used to use an OS/2 editor, EPM, which was reasonably easy to use - it has a 
GUI interface (though I must confess, at first glance even that was somewhat 
intimidating).

otoh, like emacs, it's infinitely extensible by users who can write programs; 
for EPM one can choose between E and REXX.

It also has a command interface; many of those commands are more than a little 
arcane (like vi's).

However, it's easy to get started with EPM, and there's room for the ambitions 
to grow. Aand while EPM has its own programming language, it does in fact 
resemble REXX, and users can use REXX for most enhancements anyway. And anyone 
who writes more than basic OS/2 scripts will be using REXX for other things 
and so won;t have to learn much to use it in EPM.

Every time some brightspark programmer invents a new scripting language for 
his spreadsheet, wordprocessor, programmers' editor, ftp client or whatever, 
he places a huge impediment in front of potential users.

Users want to use their existing knowledge to do their work. It doesn't mean 
there should be no refinements, but, programmers,  DO remember your users DO 
KNOW SOMETHING. Build on what they know.

For this reason, we probably must have that ridiculous start button. However, 
there's no reason to not have better ways too.