RE: [colorforth] merging edit time and run time

[Frédéric DUBOIS<frederic.dubois@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> Albert van der Horst wrote:
> > On Mon, May 23, 2005 at 02:14:02PM -0400, Mark Slicker wrote:
> 
> >>In some of the cases above, I don't think there is a user 
> illusion in the
> >>light switch if it is made clear to the user that the 
> effect of pushing
> >>the button is to send a message to a computer to requiest 
> that the light
> >>be turned on or off. If they are instead trying to pass it off as a
> >>coventional light switch, I think there is an illusion 
> going on here. In
> >>most cases it might apear to be a switch, if something goes 
> wrong, the
> >>problem may have nothing to do with operation of the light, 
> the button,
> >>and the connections between them.
> 
> Lots of people have the concept of electric circuits, where a switch 
> opens or closes the circuit.  Because they have that concept, some of 
> them will assume that every switch opens or closes an 
> electric circuit.
> 

I don't think they are trying to deceive people here; basically they are
just re-using a well-known symbol (Power off button) for the "close session
and power-off the machine". Now there is a trend in graphical design in
which things should look like a real object, which is to me objectable (it
always seemed to me ridiculous to show LCD-like display on a PC screen ).
Next, some first-degree people, does who tend to think that computer science
as something to do with black arts, may think that because it looks like a
power-off button it works and does the same as a real-life power-off button.

[...]
> 
> What can be done about the assumptions that random users have 
> based on what they already know?  What should be done?
> 

From what I wrote above, it is clear that one should use a language (in the
wide meaning: words, icon design, etc.) of our own, and stay away from
analogies. It is certainly easier to speak in our own language than speaking
in a foreign one. If you do that, your only problem is to have the user to
learn this language. And maybe it's easier than one may think. Just like it
is easier to deal with a computer when you have to command it thru layers
over layers of crap, maybe it's easier to tell someone how the computer
works and why it behaves that way when you don't have to explain first what
is a RPC or an ODBC driver. Computers are basically the result of the
collision between a calculator and a typewriter, after all. And as I said in
an other post, they are modelled after our own ways of thinking.

[...]
People should RTFM. I think the evil comes from the fact that people are
lazy and don't want to read the manual. Next, the market guy try to sell
them computers for which no manual is needed.
If you want to drive a car, you have to have a driving licence. Well, with
computers it should be the same way. Anyone should have to learn the basic
things about computers before they can use them.

 Amicalement,
  Astrobe

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