

On the Design of Editors for Small Computers (1972) - mr_golyadkin
http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/apps/Whitfield-Thesis/thesis.html

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Tloewald
"if they make large numbers of errors or have difficulties with the command
language when these could be reduced by changes to the program, then this must
be regarded as a failing of the program and not of its users"

This is an excellent point, ahead of its time, and a controversial position as
late as the mid 90s. ("No, it's a training problem.")

~~~
cbd1984
> "if they make large numbers of errors or have difficulties with the command
> language when these could be reduced by changes to the program, then this
> must be regarded as a failing of the program and not of its users"

By this standard, automobiles have an absolutely terrible design.

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theoh
I think it's possible that the controls used for automobiles suffer from
grognard capture: experienced drivers don't want anything to change.

~~~
bediger4000
I had never read "grognard capture" before. Isn't this a special case of the
economist's "path dependence"
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence))?

~~~
theoh
Yes and no, I think. There is also a "memoryless" effect at work that causes
new users to favour more complex and presumably powerful products, which they
then invest in and are reluctant to switch away from. I'm not sure the
resulting network effects in the market are an example of path dependence.
There is an article by Don Norman on the complexity phenomenon here:
[http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html](http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html)

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ChuckMcM
If you like this you should also read Craig Finseth's thesis
([http://www.finseth.com/craft/](http://www.finseth.com/craft/)) in which he
describes an emacs like editor.

