Re: Ease of developing systems and cell phones was Re: J4 - presentation/discussion o

"Clark F Morris" <cfmpublic@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
 news:l32ht3tvm78mi21nn94elllfuk7r4uv0t2@
4ax.com...
> On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:16:19 +1300, "Pete Dashwood"
> <dashwood@removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote:
> 
>
> As someone who had to read the manual a couple of times to try to use
> his cell phone and who still is enraged at the feature that key lock
> doesn't mean all keys are locked, this is not necessarily ease of use.
> My cell phone will call out to the last number in my called number
> list if I hit the right buttons somehow with the keys locked.  This
> feature seems to be required by more than one carrier because it made
> the Wall Street Journal (major US business newspaper).  Thus making
> things as natural as a cell phone isn't necessarily an improvement. 

Ah, Clark, I never said make software as natural as a cellphone. I was
talking about PEOPLE. People use cell phones very naturally. Sure, SOME
people swear at them and have difficulty, but for almost anyone under 25
they are just a natural extension of their hand... :-)

(I never ceased to be amazed by the agility with which I see young people
texting, sometimes while simultaneously carrying on a conversation...)

My expressed desire was to see people interacting naturally with computers
and getting the benefits of computer power.  As I cannot know what form this
interaction will actually take, I could no more suggest it should be
cell-phone like, than suggest it should be like driving a car or riding a
bicycle... the important thing is that it should not be precluded by lack of
difficult-to-attain specialist knowledge.

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."

 
> Clark