RE: Word Processors and GUIs

[Fisher Mark <FisherM@exch1.indy.tce.com>]

>The real boom in productivity has to do with users not having to
memorize
>various command sequences for various programs.
This is why I started using Windows 3.0 along with the MKS Toolkit Shell
back when.  Sometimes a CLI interface is the right tool -- sometimes a
GUI is the right tool.  It especially seems the case that graphical
activities (like word processing (vs. text editing)) gain much from a
GUI interface.  I also have several CLI utilities for manipulating GUI
objects (believe it or not, you can't tell Exchange Mail Client to use
'>' (or any other) as the reply character).

Nowadays, I run NT 4.0 with an MKS Toolkit Korn Shell loaded at startup
as one of my apps.  (Microsoft missed a chance when they didn't license
MKS Toolkit for NT 4.0 and Windows 95.)

>The effect of this all is profound. It means that a manager or
secretary or
>whatever doesn't need to write down a bunch of funny commands for
Wordstar,
>or Emacs, or Autocad...he or she can "muddle through" just by going to
the
>"File" menu item to open files, save them, make copies, etc. Or to the
>"Edit" menu item to make changes, cut and paste, alter fonts, whatever.
The "ctrl-alt-meta-cokebottle" syndrome was a major pain, one I was glad
to separate myself from.

>(I started out on a Data General Nova, got a Proc Tech Sol as my first
PC,
>[...]
(I started on Purdue MACE (a CDC 6000 Kronos derivative) with punched
cards, quickly graduated to Purdue MESA TTY access to MACE, then was one
of the first Unix users at Purdue around 1978.  I've created programs
for MACE, Unix, CP/M, MS-DOS, WicatOS, Windows 3.1/95/NT, VAX/VMS, and
Data General AOS.)

>I started typing all my own technical papers into my own IBM PC back in
'83
>[...]
I started typing my own papers on Unix Version 6 in 1979, using NROFF.
Probably why I like styles in Word so much...

>>I would take a good multi-threaded, multi-tasking, text mode system
over
>>the drivile that keeps comming out of Redmond, WA. anyday.
Although Windows NT 4.0 is around the quality of Unix circa 1981 or so,
that still makes it much superior to any other Microsoft OS.  With the
MKS Toolkit implementation of the Korn Shell + other Unix utilities, and
a recent version of Perl (5.004 or later), I don't feel like I'm
underpowered on NT 4.0 relative to when I work on a Sun under Solaris
2.5.

>Good writing comes from good writers, not from word processing
programs.
>Those who can't put a decent argument together will not find solace in
some
>"good multi-threaded, multi-tasking, text mode system."
How true.  Although the quality of Windows NT 4.0 is not up to what I
get under Solaris or HP-UX, I can use my machine as a light-duty
production server as well as a workstation.  It is good enough for me to
be able to concentrate on the hard work of creating quality prose and
programs.
==========================================================
Mark Leighton Fisher          Thomson Consumer Electronics
fisherm@indy.tce.com          Indianapolis, IN
"Their walls are built of cannon balls, their motto is
'Don't Tread on Me'"