Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.lnag.java,comp.object,comp.software-eng
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!nntp.sei.cmu.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!news.sgi.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!uucp1.uu.net!alexandria.organon.com!alexandria!jsa
From: jsa@alexandria (Jon S Anthony)
Subject: Re: What is wrong with OO ?
In-Reply-To: Tansel Ersavas's message of Fri, 20 Dec 1996 16:15:15 -0800
Message-ID: <JSA.96Dec23134037@alexandria>
Sender: news@organon.com (news)
Organization: Organon Motives, Inc.
References: <32A4659D.347A@shef.ac.uk> <32A71BC6.2D857063@arscorp.com>
	<32A82AFE.255A@possibility.com> <58bq8c$3n6@news.utdallas.edu>
	<32ABCB1F.5207@possibility.com> <32b016d4.3487487@nntp.interaccess.com>
	<32B125E0.7880@calfp.co.uk> <32b55196.1250002@nntp.interaccess.com>
	<32B65D6C.6F10@deep.net> <32b7181e.2647652@news.nstn.ca>
	<599g39$l5v@gaia.ns.utk.edu> <32B89D8D.7999@rase.com>
	<JSA.96Dec19203924@alexandria> <32BB2C13.A38@rase.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 18:40:37 GMT
Lines: 75
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.c++:235717 comp.lang.smalltalk:48227 comp.lang.eiffel:16962 comp.lang.ada:55309 comp.object:59057 comp.software-eng:51830

In article <32BB2C13.A38@rase.com> Tansel Ersavas <tansel@rase.com> writes:

> Jon S Anthony wrote:
> > 
> > > Still I believe that the next generation will work predominantly with
> > > pictures and will rarely revert to bulky chunks of text
> > 
> > Hmmmm, do you really think any attempt you try to provide for my first
> > question will be any where near as light weight as "mountain"???????
> > Take a look at the "byte-size" of even the simplest graphic in any
> > representation you care to and compare it to a "corresponding textual
> > description".
> 
> I remember similar discussions that took place when GUIs were first
> introduced. However, it didn't change the fact that GUI dominated. When

True, but irrelevant.  Your point was that pictures were less "bulky"
than text.  That is simply untrue.


> CERN fist introduced the text based ancestor of Mosaic, it didn't really
> motivate any users to participate until the hyper-media concept was

Sure, everyone understands that flash sells.


> will happen, in fact already happening in the systems development area.
> The first examples mostly suck, but they will be better, and will
> eventually dominate.

They may, but they will be bulky and resource intensive.  It is
interesting to note that in general you can get most of the "useful"
information content of the Web with somethin like Lynx which is very
very light weight.  Netscape and other such browsers are very heavy
weight.  And they don't offer a lot of real value added.  At least not
yet.  Perhaps they will.


> One should also remember that text is a visual represenatation as well.
> We have nice little icons that represent letters. So it is just one way
> of pictorial representation. It is a fascinating evolution how we ended

Fine, using this argument it is easy to say that pictures are text
(especially when you consider pictograms and hieroglyphs).  So, now
you've managed to remove any content from the discussion.


> of tests with users about the ease of learning of this new approach. To
> many people's surprise they didn't turn out to be faster to learn than
> the other concepts when they were first introduced. Even error rates
> came about the same. What was different, though, people's enjoyment of
> the "little pictures" as they defined it. This enjoyment in turn

This is not particularly surprising.  The same thing can be said, at a
finer granularity, about embedded formating text processors and
WYSIWYG.


> promoted wider use, and indirectly more efficient learning. Pictures are
> sexier. They can immediately grab our attention. 

This is clearly true.  At least for the majority of people.  It is
also rather uninteresting as it is boringly obvious.  Just look at
what is more popular: TV or books.  Also, just look at what has more
content: Books or TV.


/Jon
-- 
Jon Anthony
Organon Motives, Inc.
Belmont, MA 02178
617.484.3383
jsa@organon.com

