Re: Politics and anoouncing

[R G Mayhue <rgmayhue@serenesoftware.com>]

On Thu, 05 Aug 1999, Donovan wrote:
> 
> > Other commands could be used also, copy for cp, dir for ls, etc. Like I
> 
> dir is already a standard command ( it's a gnu utility ). 
> 
Sorry, I forgot. But I need to ask. Why dose it exist?

> BTW, I'm against trying to make the command line look like dos. Someone
> who already knows the dos command line won't have trouble grasping the
> UNIX command line. The difficult aspects of the UNIX command line are more
> conceptual : the idea of STDIO redirection. And because this functionality
> is not available in dos, you cannot spare the users this. 
>
Because, most *don't* know the DOS command line. Most Windows users
don't even know what a command line is, and if and when they need to
use it, it's a very frightening place to go. This black screen where you
need to type strange criptic commands into. I tutor new users on MS
Windows from time to time, and I know how hard some of the simplest
things (for you and I) can be for them to grasp. Every time I teach
someone it's a reality check for me. I tend to forget what it's like,
and I wander who is more frustrated. Them learning, or me teaching.

But I'm off the track now, sorry. 

I didn't intend to emulate the DOS command line. Just provide a
utility for the newbie user to help them learn the *inx command line.
I never had to use to command line in Windows very much, but in
the move the Linux, KDE/Gnome or not, the newbie needs to use it.

> > ahead, where do we stop. What I mean is, should we pass and convert
> > command options also?
> 
> no way. The users are better off learning the UNIX command line ( which is
> no harder than the dos command line ... provided you don't want to do any 
> more than what you can do in dos. ) 
>
This I don't intend to do, it was just a passing thought while I was
typing(-:
   
> > As far as documentation goes, I think it's only fair to give the user
> > a chance to look at the documentation of the editor they are about to
> > use. 
> 
> they do have a chance. most of the editors ( all of the ones we'd have
> them use ) have online help.
>
Your right they do, but lets take pico for example. When you bring up
pico, at the bottom left of the screen:	^G  Get Help
					^X   Exit
A newbie user may question, "What is '^'?" It's a caret of coarse,
meaning <CTRL> to you or I, so we enter <CTRL>+G(g), newbie tries to
enter ^G, and can't get help. Of coarse this is all explained in the
online help, if you get there. See where I'm going with this?

> I guess we could do something like have a short perl script which gives
> the user a brief message, prompts them, then fires up the correct editor.
> 
So the message may contain:
 
"Independence will now start the pico command line text editor. When
the editor is open, press the control + G keys for online help, control
+ X keys to exit. Press any key to continue."

Or something similar.

--

R.G. Mayhue
rgmayhue@serenesoftware.com

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