From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 11390f,4c42ac518eba0bbe X-Google-Attributes: gid11390f,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,4c42ac518eba0bbe X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,4c42ac518eba0bbe X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4c42ac518eba0bbe X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Bernecky Subject: Re: Programming language vote - results Date: 1997/10/30 Message-ID: <3458D7A4.A64A0D8F@acm.org>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 286878366 References: <343fbb5a.0@news.iprolink.ch> <344BCED0.2D51@dynamite.com.au> <344F0863.41C6@lmco.com> <3451AA9D.259C@dynamite.com.au> <62te54$p4l$1@latte.cafe.net> <3454CEB7.7D3A42B8@acm.org> <01bce3bb$5d33da00$25a43a91@basil.omroep.nl> <34565F22.5B66C13E@acm.org> <34576752.11BAACA1@acm.org> To: "James L. Ryan" X-Complaints-To: usenet@news1.tor.acc.ca X-Trace: news1.tor.acc.ca 878237366 295 (None) 142.154.22.78 Organization: ACC TelEnterprises Ltd. Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++ Date: 1997-10-30T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: James L. Ryan wrote: > In article <34576752.11BAACA1@acm.org>, Robert Bernecky > wrote: > > [snip] > > > ALL of the keyword schemes I saw (ALL of which differed from > > vendor to vendor and even within a single vendor's products) had a > > number of bad characteristics, such as: > [snip] > > I can't comment on keyword schemes other than the one we implemented at > Burroughs, but we did have correct caret placement on errors. (As an I don't think I ever saw this in action. Sorry. > I'm not sure what you mean by "difficulties with escape characters" or Ability to read a text matrix containing one or more escape characters, whencolumns were supposed to line up. Your scheme (adding blank columns) could make a function display REALLY wide. The key here is that > "user-centered design." I have no recollection of an escape character Check http://www.ibm.com/ucd for a bit of stuff on user-centered orhuman-centered design. Also, look at SIGCHI (Human-Computer Interaction) Proceedings going back 10 years or so. UCD's fundamental precepts include stuff like: you never design something right the first time, the designer is NOT the person who should make decisions about the usability of a design [the designer is blind to its faults and will often blame the user instead of the design. If you ever do usability testing (I mean formal testing, not shipping a beta off to a few people), you'll quickly find the major holes in your design, when you see 4 out of 5 users making EXACTLY the same errors.], use of ergonomic measures such as Fitt's Law [Failure to observe this is why the Windows up/down scrollbutton placement is so frustrating.] and so on. I'd like to see someone fund an APL usability study. I'll bet the language design would dramatically improve within weeks. > problem when using an ASCII terminal with Burroughs APL. Given that at the You are not a normal user, being bright, totally familiar with the product,and [bad bad bad] a designer of it. > time APL was accessed solely through hard-copy terminals, I feel that the > input and editing conventions implemented by Burroughs were a cut above > those implemented with APL/360. And given that the use of a special Your crew did some very nice design work. Generally, elegant and clean, well-thought-out ideas. Of course, with regard to your comment on Burroughs APL vs APL\360: "One of the problems of being a pioneer is that you always make mistakes, and I never, never want to be a pioneeer. It's always best to come second when you can look at the mistakes the pioneers made." Seymour Cray, LLNL CRAY-1 Introduction Lecture (1976). Bob