From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs usability Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:48:58 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: <8663qcd7h3.fsf@timbral.net> <63cf9893-7704-4ceb-a1a0-7a549d57d05f@v1g2000pra.googlegroups.com> <86ej4zedwf.fsf@lifelogs.com> <0a21d521-cbba-4dba-8792-89a042e2b1a3@j1g2000prb.googlegroups.com> <86od43cox6.fsf@lifelogs.com> <0627b0d2-a959-4fe4-a868-f03e72aaafba@1g2000pre.googlegroups.com> <86ljz38uye.fsf@lifelogs.com> <48A05F81.70601@gmail.com> <868wv36zi5.fsf_-_@lifelogs.com> <86r68u5niv.fsf@lifelogs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1218555847 1382 80.91.229.12 (12 Aug 2008 15:44:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:44:07 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 12 17:44:58 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KSw2j-0004ft-Hy for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:44:17 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:55529 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KSw1n-0005CY-Bl for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:43:19 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!r35g2000prm.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 118 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.97.120 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1218552538 12872 127.0.0.1 (12 Aug 2008 14:48:58 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:48:58 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: r35g2000prm.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.6.97.120; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.22, gzip(gfe), gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:161167 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:56512 Archived-At: On Aug 12, 7:14 am, Ted Zlatanov wrote: > On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:37:52 -0700 (PDT) Xah wrote: > > > Ted Zlatanov wrote: > > > The usability metrics (fairly standard in the industry) are listed in > > >http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taouu/taouu.html#id2998837soplease > > > see their definitions. > > > > - concise > > > - expressive > > > - easy (in the sense of "mnemonic load") > > > - transparent > > > - scriptable > > > - discoverable > > X> That's from =E2=80=9CThe Art of Unix Usability=E2=80=9D by Eric S Raym= ond. > > X> These cult-like books are rather snake oil. > > I disagree that this particular book is in any way cult-like, but that's > irrelevant. What's important is the list of usability metrics as it > applies to Emacs; if you disagree with that list then provide a better > one. A better book on issues such as software intereface and usability, in my opinion, are for example: =E2=80=A2 The Unix-Hater's handbook, by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise, Ste= ven Strassmann, and Don Hopkins. 1994. The entire book is available at http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf and local mirror: ugh.pdf.zip =E2=80=A2 The Rise of =E2=80=9CWorse is Better=E2=80=9D=E2=86=97 by Richard= P Gabriel, 1991 (local copy) =E2=80=A2 =E2=80=9CJava: Slow, ugly and irrelevant=E2=80=9D, By Simson Garf= inkel, 2001-01-08. http://archive.salon.com/tech/col/garf/2001/01/08/bad_java/print.html, (local copy) =E2=80=A2 Joseph M. Newcomer. Optimization: Your Worst Enemy, 1999. http://flounder.com/optimization.htm (local copy) =E2=80=A2 Theodore W Gray, author of Mathematica frontend, on educational m= ath software, video games, and violence, 2002-05. http://www.theodoregray.com/B= rainRot/index.html; (local copy) =E2=80=A2 the famous =E2=80=9CGo To Statement Considered Harmful=E2=80=9D b= y computer scientist Edsger W Dijkstra, 1968. http://www.acm.org/classics/oct95/; (local copy) =E2=80=A2 Steve Job's interview by Wired (1996-02), on education system and design. Steve Job is a insightful man. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4= .02/jobs_pr.html. (Local copy) =E2=80=A2 Suck.com's Greg Knauss on Netscape and the =E2=80=9CSkin=E2=80=9D= phenomenon. http://www.suck.com/daily/2000/04/10/daily.html; (Local copy) =E2=80=A2 Communications of the ACM 34, 4 (April 1991), 18. Henry G Baker, 1990. (On the harm of speed) http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/letters/CACM= -DubiousAchievement.html; (local copy) =E2=80=A2 Jamie Zawinski, notorious programer of xemacs and Netscape web browser, has written a webpage that contains codes from Netscape browser before its OpenSource release. Note the profanity laiden comments and what they say. It gives a indication of the pain and fucked-up-ness of computing industry. http://www.jwz.org/doc/censorzilla.ht= ml (2004-08-02 local copy) =E2=80=A2 Let's Make Unix Not Suck=E2=86=97, by Miguel De Icaza, 1999. =E2=80=A2 Code Complete : A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve C McConnell (amazon.com=E2=86=97). Throw away all your Design Pattern= s or eXtreme Programming books. If you want a scientific book on software development analysis, read this book instead. =E2=80=A2 Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How To Restore The Sanity. 1999. (amazon.com=E2=86=97) This book explains away the errors of today's softwar= es. Alan Cooper also wrote the book About Face, on software interface design. These are excerpts from: http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/paradigm.html --------------------- Above are compiled around 2002 so is slightly outdated, and is more geared towards software engineering and unix industry issues. However, as a example of real software interface books, i'd recommend Apple Human Interface design, and similar publication by Microsoft., and the references, researches, cited in these books. A more practically accessable resource, is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface_design from there, one can find tens more articles and references, that are more quality references then any of those from the mouths of crackpots the likes of Larry Wall or Eric Raymond. (disclaimer: all mention of real persons are opinion only) Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84