[Sussex] Rantting (Was: Mail client suggestions)

[Thomas Adam]

On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 10:30:54AM +0100, Steve Dobson wrote:
> This is, in fact, a well documented problem of GUIs. By limiting the
> way you interact with a computer imposes a limit on the way a user
> thinks that a computer can be used. This is the same principle as
> George Orwell's Newspeak: by reducing the vocabulary of the language
> one reduces the ways in which people can think criminal thoughts.

Indeed, the problem with GUIs (especially those which sit ontop of
console-based apps) is that they're never going to be able to enumerate
all of the options that the equivalent console app provides, and even if
they *could* -- the freedom by which one is able to carry out the task
is limiting, to say nothing about difficult.

-- Thomas Adam

--  
"One of us is a cigar stand, and one of us is a lovely blue incandescent
guillotine" -- Stephen Malkmus, "Type Slowly" from "Brighten The Corners"