No my reasoning is that if I would like the program to select the next
message I read instead of scanning the headers and double clicking the one I
*want* to read, I don't want to have to look up or know a keyboard command.
BTW: Free Agent only has a button for "next", whereas I frequently start
with a reply in a thread from someone I know and go up to find how the
thread progressed as it has.
Bullshit... I know keyboard shortcuts are a faster and more efficient way of
doing things you know how to do via buttons or menu commands. "Intuitive"
means the software makes is easy/self-evident enough to accomplish a task
even if you don't know exactly how to do it.
Except for most applications supporting ctrl-c/ctrl-x/ctrl-v for
copy/cut/paste, application specific keyboard shortcuts do not fall under
"intuitive features".
I bet you wish programs were still run from the command line too. Great
days, weren't they? -I remember when I studied to be an engineer all the CAE
(Computer Aided Engineering) tools were on a big Unix minicomputer by Sun
with HP workstations. I don't remember the system's name... something to do
with elephants (I kid ye not). The programs themselves were GUI but one
needed to start them from the command line, specifying which libraries and
schematic you wanted to use. So what did I, having some knowledge of UNIX
shell, do? -I wrote macros and handed them around to my classmates so we
wouldn't have to type in the system directory where the component libraries
were stored, nor our user directories where our designs were stored. Next
year the teacher handed them to the next class (without crediting me, which
irks me to this day).
Now I open the project management application for my EDA (Electronic Design
Application) package (which runs a single computer system using any recent
Windows OS), click on the "open" button (which defaults to a directory of my
choosing) and select the file I want to edit. If I select a schematic, it
opens the schematic editor with the schematic for editing, if I select a PCB
layout it opens the PCB editor and so on...
What actually happens here? -Well, clicking the button or double clicking
the file, launches a macro one of the programmers of this application wrote,
saving me from having to actually know how to do this by typing in a
command. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm just able
to do more stuff without knowing the ins and outs. I used to be
uncomfortable with this, I'm not anymore. Perhaps it's time for the
so-called knowledgable users to throw away the comfort blanket of low level
control and admit point and click really is easier, instead of "easy once
you know".
When I'm editing my electronic designs I use keyboard shortcuts to
accomplish routine tasks without having to take the mouse out of the work
area. I get paid to produce designs, not to fart about with a mouse.
However, when I have to do something out of the ordinary, like inserting
nodes for automatic testing machines (most of my clients don't have that
kind of equipment, to date none have asked me for this kind of information),
I would look under the most likely menu and, having paid nearly $9000 for
the software and knowing it incorporates this feature, I would be very
annoyed not to find the command there.
I guess it boils down to what you expect your software to do. I follow some
7 newsgroups, most on private servers where the message traffic is low. In
fact RAS is has by far the largest message traffic of all and even that's
not unmanagable at an average of 50 headers per day. I can configure all of
them in OE and browse the messages in a way that comes natural to me. In
fact, I've yet to try a newsreader that does it better and I've tried all of
'm (at Tucows) in order to find one that combines the ease of use I find in
OE with the effortless ability to cull binary newsgroups that is present in
Agent. I haven't been successfull and that is why I use each program for
what it's good at. Whether this conformes to any standard for computer
proficiency as you see it is beyond any of my concerns.
Jan.
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