[Gllug] Computer literacy, was: ed vs emacs/vi, was: ed vs emacs, was: OpenMoko Neo Freerunner

[Alain Williams]

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 01:21:05PM +0100, Nix wrote:

> Actually I'm just depressed that there's been so little progress that
> people are decrying older editors for being incapable when in many ways
> they are *more* capable than the later editors, because the later
> editors spent all their damn time reinventing wheels and trying to fit
> into godawful GUI paradigms which were not designed for large-scale text
> editing work. (CUA, I'm looking at you.)

Part of the reason for your depression is that you put time/effort into learning
how to be effective in your editor of choice. The result is that you know how
to use it to fast/efficient/...

The modern GUI is good at people who just sit down and expect to be able
to use a computer without much training and expence of learning time.
Very many people do not progress beyond what they learned on their first day.

I, occasionally, teach people - some of who claim to be computer professionals,
I sometimes cringe when I see how inefficient their use is. Things like:
enter something in a form, then move the mouse to click on the only button;
why did then not press return ? Because: they never learned that and more
importantly they do not have the mindset of trying things out to see if they
can be faster.

Just like the huge number of people who don't know how to use email: top post,
failure to trim, ... but I won't start.

But my point is serious: many of today's users don't understand much about
the systems that they are using. We, the techies, don't really understand that
they dont - and that they aren't interested.
What can we do to raise the level of computer literacy in the UK ?

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
Past chairman of UKUUG: http://www.ukuug.org/
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
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