Iconitis

[Barry Margolin]

In article <1364 at uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> charlie at mica.stat.washington.edu (Charlie Geyer) writes:
>except that not all useful "extensions" can be usefully be done by
>adding options to menus.  That's why I said "programmable."

Any extensions that involve adding new keystrokes to an emacs- or
vi-style application, or adding commands to a CLI-based application,
can be done by adding options to menus.  If the extension doesn't
involve the command interface (e.g. it changes the behavior of
existing commands) then what difference does it make whether the
application uses commands, menus, icons, or direct brain interface?
Either it's programmable or it isn't.

Just because most Macintosh applications aren't programmable doesn't
mean that this is a requirement of menu-based applications.  Most Unix
applications aren't extendable, either (emacs is the exception, not
the rule).

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar at think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar