::scr Internet Explorer - Danger in numbers?

[Arvid Gidhagen]

> I don't see it as being archaic, nor do I see it being any harder for
> newbies to learn than Windows or the Mac.  Windows and the Mac only
> *seem* easier to learn because people get more exposure to them.

I do not intend anything I say to be interpreted as anti-Unix
flamebait in anyway. I like Unix. People who know how to use it
generally like Unix. But I still think that it takes more time
to learn a command-line interface than a GUI.

I couldn't find any proper double-blind test, but consider this:

i) Naive user gets seated in front of a Mac. Someone tells them:
   "You move the mouse like this (shows). You can click or double-
   click on things to make stuff happen (shows). Poke around for
   a while and see what you can do."

ii) Naive user gets seated in front of a text-only Unix terminal.
    Someone tells them: "You write commands here. (types "ls").
    Type some stuff and see what happens. If you get stuck, you can
    use the "man" command for help."

> Have you tried to use the Windows help?  I for one find it useless

Me too. But with a GUI, you can at least look in the menus of a
given application to see what you can do, even if you don't
understand what the results of your actions are or why you're
supposed to do anything at all.

> contain the pertinent information.  What is wrong with terse? 

Nothing, as long as you know what the terse text means. But to know
this, you have to be taught by someone.

This is what "man chmod" produces, and to get this far, you have to
know that the commands "man" and "chmod" exist and that you need
chmod to change your file security.

NAME
     chmod - change mode of a file

SYNOPSIS
     integer*4 function chmod (name, mode)
     character*(*) name, mode

DESCRIPTION
     Change the file system mode of file name.  You can set  mode
     to be any specification recognized by chmod(1).

     The argument name must be a single path name.

     The normal returned value is 0.  Any other value is a system
     error number.

FILES
     libF77.a
     /bin/chmod      executed to change the mode

SEE ALSO
     chmod(1), gerror(3F)

RESTRICTION
     Path names cannot be longer than MAXPATHLEN  as  defined  in
     <sys/param.h>.

Probably quite bewildering to a new user, regardless of whether
they are used to GUIs or not.

(For comparison, I looked at "security" in the Windows help.
 While you still have to realize that the heading "To change
 file or folder properties" is the one you're looking for,
 once you've found it you do get a step-by-step description
 of how to change them, that unfortunately lacks the final
 steps. And no mention of WHY anyone should want to change
 them. *sigh*)

- Arvid