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Article #7330Re: Porting UNIX Applications to the Mac
From: Stephen Withers
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1986 21:58
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1986 21:58
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In article <1897@utecfa.UUCP> edusoft@utecfa.UUCP (BIll Idsardi) writes: >The idea is, however, to keep the modes simple and small, so that >a user's options and how to get at them are obvious. > >So, MacWrite has lots of little modes, and vi has two big modes. I think the question is more to do with the "depth" of a mode, rather than its complexity. With MacWrite, "insert mode" is so shallow that you can't call it a mode - you can hit any of the shortcut keys as you type. With vi, you must get out of exit mode before you can do anything but type more characters. Anyway, I believe that one of the main determinants of a good user interface is how easy it is to do something catastrophic. With MacWrite (and most Mac programs) it's hard; with vi (and most Unix programs?) it's easy.
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!munnari!murdu!stephenw From: stephenw@murdu.OZ (Stephen Withers) Newsgroups: net.micro.mac Subject: Re: Porting UNIX Applications to the Mac Message-ID: <1171@murdu.OZ> Date: Wed, 24-Sep-86 17:58:44 EDT Article-I.D.: murdu.1171 Posted: Wed Sep 24 17:58:44 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 25-Sep-86 18:41:32 EDT References: <1572@cbdkc1.UUCP> <1091@hoptoad.uucp> <1897@utecfa.UUCP> Reply-To: stephenw@murdu.UUCP (Stephen Withers) Organization: University Computing Services, The University of Melbourne Lines: 14