OT: Who deserves the credit for the rapid growth in graphical computing?

[Fairlight]

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 10:41:57AM -0800, Bill Campbell via Filepro-list thus spoke:
> 
> Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are great for some things, but
> not everything, (e.g. high volume data entry).  I installed my

Concur.  Having been a temp doing a lot of data entry at a lot of offices,
I can say GUI data entry sucks in most cases.  Give me CICS over GUI any
day of the week.

> their Windows workstations.  The office manager said their
> productivity dropped at least 50% when they were required to use
> MS-Word for Windows instead of WordPerfect as Word required
> constant use of the mouse requiring the typist to move their hand
> off the home keys.  I had similar comments from people who had
> used Scripsit, and were required to move to a GUI word processor.

That is exactly my argument against GUI design for certain application use
cases; constantly having to move to the mouse is ridiculously inefficient.

Even today, I make use of keyboard-only tab-based entry on web pages, when
possible.  Unfortunately, some forms are designed to be freaking braindead
in terms of indicating focus on certain UI elements (state and country
selection boxes are notorious for this), and I end up grudgingly having to
revert to the mouse, usually swearing simultaneously at some unnamed
'designer'.

I am -really- picky about UI design.

I do remember being extremely displeased with WordPerfect 6 on X11 after
having been on 5.1 on Windows for years, too.  It just wasn't the same.
I mean, I can -use- anything, given a little time.  I'm one of the few
people I know who bothered to train on Word/36, so I'm no stranger to the
fringes.  That said, there are good and bad ways to do things.

Word for Windows I'm still not convinced has caught up to Word 4.0 for
Macs from ~1992.  That version was arguably one of the most versatile
word processors out there, even for a GUI.  What's really -stupid- about
Word is that it's been 23 years, and in the course of reaming people for
version after version of useless new 'features' for Word, Microsoft still
has not invented a -proper- hanging tab which acts as a blockquote at the
same indent level when wrapping until you hit a carriage return.  I always
have to go to contortions to emulate what should be a trivial thing to
implement.  I've asked people who keep up with Word, and it apparently
doesn't exist.  Two decades, and it's missing something that useful.
"WTF?"

mark->
-- 
Audio panton, cogito singularis.