On Mon, 2007-21-05 at 13:04 +0100, Rodrigo Queiro wrote:

My friend read your email and remarked:
"How is this guy not embarrassed posting on the internet about not liking vim because he doesn't like editing config files?"

Because, unlike your friend, I actually have seen the advances in HID over the past 30 years. Editing text files is not the be-all/end-all of user interfaces. Indeed there is astonishingly high volumes of evidence showing that it's a pretty miserable user interface -- a misery amplified by the fact that every two-bit program has its own entirely unique syntax (usually broken in many exciting ways!) full of cryptic commands and settings. Don't believe it? Go to your home directory and compare all the .<files> you find. You really think it's a good thing to maintain each of those manually?

Oh, and of course it wasn't just the config files I showed problems with, now, was it? I seem to remember something about modality and bad syntax highlighting. Maybe I was tripping. It happens.

For your friend's reference, here's a good outline of what principles underlie HID: http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html. For even more modern outlooks, I'm sure a quick search at Amazon.com (or his bookseller of choice) can give him other ideas.

So am I embarrassed for asking for something resembling a 21st-century user interface instead of a 1970s vintage one? Not in the slightest.

--
Michael T. Richter <ttmrichter@gmail.com> (GoogleTalk: ttmrichter@gmail.com)
It's OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn't need to figure out code. You should be able to read it. (Steve McConnell)