more on the NeXT (48)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Sun, 16 Apr 89 21:18:38 EDT
Humanist Mailing List, Vol. 2, No. 847. Sunday, 16 Apr 1989.
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 89 14:37:19 EDT
From: "James H. Coombs" <JAZBO@BROWNVM>
Subject: NeXT interface
I have played with the NeXT machine for a few hours. I found the interface
difficult compared to the Mac interface. I got lost easily. Perhaps it's a
matter of familiarity. I'm sure that I had seen people use the Mac interface
before I tried it out. I walked up to the NeXT machine with no introduction
and with nearly useless documentation. Still, I believe that the NeXT
interface is relatively complicated without offering substantial benefits over
the Mac interface. I'm sure that my opinion will change if I start working
with the machine. I'm also sure that the NeXT machine will require more
training. Note that I base my judgment on a comparison not only with Mac OS
but also with Mac A/UX running Intermedia. I stress that this is a FIRST
IMPRESSION, very subjective, all of that. Worth stating only because I think
it will be a common first impression and because many people are wondering
about the machine.
I would like to criticize the three-dimensional aspect of the interface. The
third-dimension does not provide useful information. It simply gives me more
to process and, ultimately, to discard. I believe that this impression will
be lasting. I think the developers are clinging to the past, that they do not
recognize our capabilities to outgrow our familiarity with physical controls.
The people that I have discussed this with disagree with me, but then they
haven't had their hands on the machine. A lot of people are excited about the
graphics potentials and are happy to see the interface experimentation. I
would be happy with an option that let me remove the 3d from the interface;
give me 2d scroll bars. Let's use 3d where the third dimension represents
information not already represented in 2d.
--Jim
Dr. James H. Coombs
Senior Software Engineer, Research
Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS)
Brown University
jazbo@brownvm.bitnet