[Gllug] On Linux desktops...

[Ms. Lene Jensen]

On Wed, 17 Oct 2001, Alex Hudson wrote:

> GUIs are tools for power users - they enable people to do work more quickly.
> They enable you to work with datasets with more than one dimension. They
> allow you to express more powerful relations between objects.

First, let's define GUI.  Webster says:

Main Entry:     graphical user interface
Function:       noun
Date:   1988
: a computer program designed to allow a computer user to interact easily
with the computer typically by using a mouse to make choices from menus or
groups of icons

I interpret that as involving X.  So, to _me_ this means anything in
runlevel 5 or using X window system (or 8 1/2, if that's your torture, to
make an example).  So, emacs, vi and so on, would _not_ have a GUI but a
UI.

> People do, though, often misunderstand what it means to be command-line. Just
> because a display is made of text, on a console, doesn't mean it's not a GUI.

Can you define GUI and apply it?  Where do you draw the line between UI
and GUI?  After a discussion in the office, we came to the "agreement"
that what GUI means today is not what was meant in the days of the punch
cards.

> Good user interface design is about interaction, not what the thing actually
> looks like. So, Pine has a better GUI than vi, for example, because it's a
> lot easier to get into initially, the shortcuts are easily available, and it
> edits more consistently. However, people have moved into vGUI (X Windows, for
> example), because a text-based interface is incredibly limited in terms of
> interaction - how do you design a drop-down menu in text? Does three rows of
> characters take up too much room? Etc. - the actual widgets for interacting
> with software are better in a highly graphical environment.

Btw, in Norwegian (where I am from), Pine means agony, and although I use
it every day, I still agree.  But you can do pretty much in Pine, despite
the modified pico editor...

LJ
-- 
Un paio di scarpe, per favore


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug