Re: annual "crap-for-brains software" posting

[cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.]

In <9305111124.AA08521@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu> SAHARBAUGH@ROO.FIT.EDU writes:

>  Well I guess its time for my annual "crap-for-brains software" posting
>again.  
>3. Tried some demo software on a PC with windows.  Inserted
>diskette in B drive and selected icon to execute a file on that
>diskette. ( i don't know the right words here, i'm primarily a
>macintosh point and shoot person).  Windows went thru all the
>expected moves and then asked me to type in the filename that
>i wanted to execute (which i could have done in DOS without 
>all that mousing.  The 3 of us present all laughed out loud at
>the same time.  

Three of you present, and none of you knew how to use the product,
apparently.  Now, I dislike much of the Windows interface paradigm,
but I don't think that's an excuse for ignorance paraded as a
demonstration of bad software.  Next time you want to execute a file
on a drive, *open the File Manager*.  In the File Manager, click on
the file that you want to run.  It runs.  Presto.  Incredibly
difficult, no doubt.

>Later using windows I wanted to alter a filename
>in a window and instead of backspacing it just erased the entire
>filename.  Apparently the philosophy of requiring the user to
>memorize filenames lives on.

Apparently, the philosophy of never reading the documentation lives
on.  The filename was shaded when you hit the backspace key, wasn't
it?  That makes backspace act as 'delete shaded area'.  Once again,
user ignorance is blamed on the software.  Next time, use the arrow
keys to move around or hit the 'end' key to move the cursor to the end
of the filename and cancel the block select.

Following this philosophy, Ada is the *worst* language because you
have to know so much in order to start producing software in it.  Are
you writing Ada without ever having read anything about the language
at all?  This seems to be your problem with what you are complaining
about here.

[Needless, to say, I don't believe in the philosophy that willful user
ignorance should be laid at the door of the software.  If you hit the
wrong keys, it does the wrong things.  This should not be surprising.] 

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.