From kragen@dnaco.net Sat Aug 1 15:35:52 1998 Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 15:35:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Kragen To: Hex Subject: Re: Now wait a second... In-Reply-To: <19980801070732Z12345-30407+7@mail2.one.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Keywords: X-UID: 947 Status: O X-Status: On Sat, 1 Aug 1998, Hex wrote: > * * You said... > Siag Office is GNUish. I haven't tried it. > - - - -- - - - > Never heard of it... would you happen to have a URL? It lives at . > * * You also said... > I have tried some other GPLed spreadsheets. They were all terrible, as > bad as SuperCalc in 1982 or worse, when it came to usability. I think > this is because the FSF folks (and Unix folks in general) haven't yet > got the usability religion. > - - - -- - - - > The expectation that everyone using a system is an ace programmer-type is > not a good assumption... I'm not convinced that that expectation is what's behind this. It's true that some things that make a system more usable for novices can make it less usable for people who want to program it, but I don't think that's what's behind Win95's poor usability or Oleo's and Teapot's nightmarish usability. Furthermore, it's easier to figure out how to use Oleo by reading the manual than by reading the source code. I just had the expectation (unreasonable?) that I wouldn't have to read a manual to use a goddamned *spreadsheet*, for crying out loud. I certainly don't have to read a manual to use any spreadsheet for the PC, GUI or no. (Did I recommend _The Design of Everyday Things_ to everyone yet?) (The spreadsheet that finally met that criterion was ARX's 321, aka mc (macrocalc?) which is "free for non-commercial use".) > you should see some of my C code that I wrote in > college... it was hideous. And figuring out someone else's code can be > nightmarish from my occasional experiences with it. Figuring out someone else's code can be infeasible. (Do you mind if I send this post to clug-user?) Kragen