Re: ::scr Re: Cognitive Friction

[simon wistow <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 12:06:21PM +0000, Andy Wardley said:
> These things get programmed into what is sometimes referred to as "muscle
> memory", although I'm not sure how accurate that term is in a strictly 
> scientific definition.  Anyway, we do these things fast, as if on auto-pilot.

Which is why, IIRC from "Insanely Great" he pushed hard for the
Macintosh not to have a mouse. 	

It's nice to have the option though so that, over time, you can
gradually start to replace mouse actions with key board commands.

For example - minimize all windows in, err, Windows 9x. You can either
right click on a spare bit of desktop (or the task bar) and select the
option. As of later updates there was also a button between the task bar
and the start button. What many people don't realise is that you can
also do it by hitting Windows-m.

However (lots|more|some) people do know the keyboard shortcuts for Copy
(ctrl-c), Cut (ctrl-x), Paste (Ctrl-v) and switch windows (Alt-Tab) and
often seem to do it without noticing which means less interuption in
their thought processes - call it a lower context switch overhead.

Hmm, not really sure where I'm going with this - I think I'm just
thinking outloud and hoping that somebody else will pick it up and run
with it.

Bad me.

#insert "In the beginning was the command line"
#insert http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html