Re: A+/InCider article: ACK!

[jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu (Jim Wong)]

In article <uerics.721965155@mcl> uerics@mcl.ucsb.edu (Eric D. Shepherd) writes:
>
>o Proportional scroll bars (how in blazes can Mac people stand those phony
>scroll bars -- that's the most non-intuitive thing I've ever seen).

I like proportional scroll bars; they make sense to me.
But, supposedly, Apple has done tests that indicate that they are less
intuitive for new users.  And they would screw up the Mac's fancy 3-D
design (*grin*).

>o Easy access to foreign disks (let's face it, AFE is _slooowwww_ and
>doesn't work very well on ProDOS files).

I have to disagree here.  My Mac recognizes ProDOS and MS-DOS disks
automatically, and mounts them on the desktop.  I can even map MS-DOS
extensions to particular applications, so I can open an application
and document simultaneously by double-clicking on the application.

>o More intuitive Finder (IMHO.  For example, there are many more keyboard
>equivalents, and these are more logical in many ways)

Yes. Empty Trash, at least.  Maybe they don't want to make it too easy
to accidentally delete something.  The equivalent for "Put Away", command-y,
is physically very close to command-t.  On the GS side, though, having
"Get Info" in the Special menu always seemed weird to me, even though
techinically you can "Get Info" on objects that aren't files.

>o Knows when to break the rules (the Mac follows the HIG obsessively,
>avoiding intuitiveness just to follow those guidelines.  They're called
>"guidelines", not "the law".  Having a key equivalent for "Print..." seems
>intuitive to me...)

There is one.  Apple officially recommends command-P for "Print...".  This
actually represents a change from the original guidelines.

>The Mac is a pretty good machine, but it could certainly learn a few
>things from the IIGS (and the other IIs, for that matter).

Of course.  I still wsh the GS Finder wouldn't be unable to find
the application that belongs to a given document just because the program's
filename has changed.


-- 
Jim Wong (jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu)