Iconitis

[Sho Kuwamoto]

In article <664 at wuphys.UUCP> mrk at wuphys.UUCP (Mark R. Kaufmann) writes:
<In article <28679 at apple.Apple.COM> austing at Apple.COM (Glenn L. Austin) writes:

<<Compare the time it takes to type "DIR<return>" with double-click.  If you
<<notice, it takes a lot less time to double-click than it does to type the
<<command....

<Compare the time it takes to pick up your right hand from the home position
<on the keyboard, which is its natural place :-) when using a computer,
<finding the mouse, moving it where you want, double-clicking, then moving
<your hand back to the keyboard.
<I'd bet typing four characters is faster by a factor of ten.

When browsing around the disk using the Finder, you never have your hands
on the keyboard.  The only time you type anything is when you:
   a) want to use a keyboard shortcut
   b) want to rename a file.
Thus, your hand is virtually always on the mouse when using the Finder.

Second, in a windowing system in general, you can have directory
windows already open for the most commonly used directories.  No need
to type "cd ../../foo/bletch".  Even if you need to open windows which
are not already open, unless you only want to go up or down one level,
I find it easier to use a mouse to move through directories.  In
addition, the Mac is intelligent in other ways.  You can double click
on a document, and it will open it using whatever application created
that file.  The StdFile package in the ROMs will give you a scrolling
list of appropriate files when you want to open something from within
a program.  If you want, you can use the keyboard to select: use arrow
keys to maneuver in the list, or type in the first n characters which
will specify the file you want.  If you want to type in the whole
filename, go ahead.

And if you really need a shell interface, you can always use the MPW
Shell.

-Sho