On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 07:54:27PM +0200, Jens Bech Madsen wrote:
>On Thu, 2004-07-15 at 19:15 +0200, Sven Luther wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 06:53:05PM +0200, Michael Banck wrote:
>> > On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 07:40:21PM +0300, Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
>> > > On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, Bastien Nocera wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > The point is to hide features that only power-users will use. Let me
>> > > > know when you see someone on a Mac or Windows using tab completion,
>> > > > right? ;)
>> > >
>> > > All Windows boxes I have used were setup to enable tab completion.
>> > > Heck, the trick was shown to me by an MSCE college at the previous job
>> > > and is dead easy. One Windows registry key to change and bingo.
>> >
>> > Eh, was that meant to be funny? If you change registry keys in order to
>> > configure stuff, you qualify for being a 'Windows power user' I guess.
>>
>> Because you have to modify a reistry key to enable it, doesn't mean that
>> you have to be a power user to enable it.
>
>Nor does it imply that it is a feature that _should_ be reserved for
>power users. The fact that it is hard to discover or enable on Windows
>has no bearing on whether it is something only power users can
>comprehend and use.
Hear, hear!
I wasn't a power user the first time I sat down in front of a Unix
machine (I wouldn't call me a power user now either). That was the first
time I came across tab-completion. It's a brilliant idea so I've used it
ever since and on Windows I miss it so much that I invested the time in
using Google to find out if it was available and how to turn it on.
Personally I can never understand the idea of looking at inferior, but
more widely used, systems and copy their behaviour. Why not acknowledge
the grand history of Unix (tab-completion is part of it) and leverage
it?
To paraphrase:
Design a system that is simple to use, and only simpletons will use it!
Oh, yes, this post shouldn't really be in a Debian mailing list, I know.
/M
--
Magnus Therning (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
magnus@therning.org
http://magnus.therning.org/
Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no
concept of the odds against them.
-- Dr. Robert Jarvik
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