Atari Mega Archive 1/Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso/lists/gem/l_0399/74

Internet Message Format | 1994-08-27 | 6KB

Date: Sun, 29 May 1994 14:06:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Timothy Miller <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: MAUS
To: [e-mail]
In-Reply-To: <9405291131.AA00675=[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.87.9405291453.B13407-0100000@undergrad>
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On Sun, 29 May 1994, Annius Groenink wrote:

>
> > Atari Works uses ctrl-A for 'select whole document'.  Take a quick look
> > at your keyboard and tell me that your little finger couldn't
> > accidentally slip and hit them both.  I do it too often, but once is
> > enough for me.  I will be typing along, accidentally hit ctrl-a, and a
> > few other keys, and Atari Works will (in it's stomach-churningly slow
> > line-by-line manner) delete your entire document.  Ever time that
> > happens, I want to shoot Pradip and whomever talked him into using it.
> > Something as easy to hit as ctrl-a should NOT select anything of
> > consequence, and something as dangerous as select-whole-document
> > shouldn't be easily accessible (or even at all from the keyboard).
>
> Atari Works is just unsafe in general.  A program should always provide
> a way out if a user accidentally lost important data.  A single-stage undo
> is simply not enough to avoid irritation.  Once a solution has been found
> for that (e.g. the trash can in Edith) control + A is no longer a problem.
> It is also highly standard on other platforms  (like ^W for close windows).

Well, fortunately, accidential erasure from hitting Ctrl-A is almost
always corrected by UNDO.  I and a few others I have talked to have
expressed their distaste for something as easy to hit as ctrl-a being
used to select something as dangerous as select-whole-document.  Ofir
tells me that Ctrl-A has been accepted as standard by both Germans and
others, but regardless of who has accepted it, I think it should be
REMOVED as a standard.  This is an issue that I will press very
strongly.  As I said, these standards need to be chosen carefully, and
regardless of who has excepted it, if it's bad, it should be removed.

With many other programs (especially for UNIX), Ctrl-A moved the cursor
to the beginning of the line, and Ctrl-E moves to then end.  Maybe we
should use those assignments.

>
> > Two others that tick me off are shift-backspace and shift-delete.  I'll
> > be typing along, and start typing in a string of capital letters by
> > holding down shift and then make a mistake.  My automatic reaction is to
> > hit backspace... shift-backspace deletes the whole line.  VERY irritating.
>
> Hit UNDO once.  Should work,  shouldn't it?  I like shift-backspace but find
> shift-delete a bit strange.  Ortogonally thinking,  it should mean:
> delete everything right to the cursor.  But it means delete line and line feed
> altogether!

Unlike the damage caused by ctrl-A, UNDO never fixes the damage caused by
shift-backspace.  I will often end up retyping the same line repeatedly
if I make a typo in the middle of a string of all caps.

>
> > My whole point is that when you come up with standards, DO NOT be
> > arbitrary.  If you come up with something, THINK through it, test it, and
> > make sure that it's not going to cause problems.  Others agree with me
> > that the abovementioned problems with Atari Works are serious design
> > errors, and since they came from Atari's standard, Atari is ultimately at
> > fault.
>
> I agree in part (basically things like shift-delete).
>
> > The standards should help people to be PRODUCTIVE, NOT get in their way.
> > One should go so far as to figure out what operations are used most
> > frequently and assign those first.  If close-document comes out ctrl-w or
> > ctrl-z, or ctrl-i, I dont' care, as long as it is chosen such that it
> > makes the life of the user more productive.
>
> There is one good argument for Atari's codes ^W and ^A.  If anyone should
> ever be thinking of buying an Atari and s/he is familiar with a Macintosh
> or good X-Windows applications,  then the Atari guidelines will make programs
> look very familiar.  ^U for close window and ^W for wechseln (cycle) will
> feel very strange to him/her.

My pet pieve is Ctrl-A because it's dangerous.  The others, I could
almost care less about.  Although, I do hate it when someone uses totally
alien short-cut-keys, like they did with the Lattice C editor.  YUCK!
VERY FAST, ellegant editor, but they shortcuts make no sense.

>
> > Think about what Dvorak did when designing his keyboard layout.  He
> > figured out what letters were used in what frequency and what workloads
> > each of the fingers could handle, then make intelligent, careful
> > assignments of letters to fingers to come up with a keyboard that takes
> > on the order of 20 times less energy to use than a QWERTY keyboard.  Put
> > the same kind thought and research into your standards, whether they be
> > for hot-keys or import/export drivers.
>
> Shortcuts are much less regularly used than letters for typing text.
> The biggest problem for shortcuts is remembering them.  Therefore,  they
> should,  as far as possible,  suggest their use,  like ^A for All,  ^Q for
> Quit,  ^W for close window.    One exceptions is perhaps cut/copy/paste
> (^X ^C ^V) which is ergonomical,  and by now known by more than half  of all
> computer users in the world (?)
>
> --
> Annius V. Groenink | E-mail: [e-mail]      |  Private & ZFC:
> CWI, Kruislaan 413 | Room:   M233            |  P.O. Box 12079
> 1098 SJ Amsterdam  | Ext:    4077            |  NL 1100 AB Amsterdam
> Netherland         | Phone:  [phone] |  Phone: [phone]
>

Be warned.  I am an Atari fanatic, an efficienty fanatic, and a
user-interface freak.  Being involved with this standards commitee, I'm
going to make sure it's perfect.  If necessary, I will discuss it with a
friend of mine who is a full Professor at the university of south
Florida's computer science department and has a Ph.D in psychology.