[R] Point and click

[Jason Turner]

Cliff Lunneborg wrote:

> The following query raises the question: What is it that students learn
> from point and click dialogs?"

[long boring ramble - I'm sure you know how to find the delete key when 
it gets tedious ;) ]

I think it's fair to say that they don't learn the software, or its 
internal structures/methods/etc at all (Mac users have always told me 
that this is the point; I'm not getting into that holy war).

I will state one thing - the point and click interface *can* teach about 
the underlying software mechanisms, but it has to be a well thought-out 
interface.

Example - I never used a computer that had a heirarchical filesystem 
until I went to university.  I then had to learn two:  IBM PC clones 
were used to teach us AutoCAD (ever seen AutoCAD run on an 8086 with 
640K of RAM?  It's not pretty ;).  I also worked on the student 
newspaper, which was a Mac-only shop.  The Macs came later; I was 
working in layout initially, back when layout really involved printouts, 
big cardboard sheets, and wax to stick the articles to the cardboard.

I did not understand directory structure on the PCs at all.  It never 
clicked.  I simply "parroted" the commands I was taught to use, and 
managed to stay out of trouble.  "Polly wanna .dwg file."  Then I worked 
on the Macs.  The display of folders made it clear to me, in about five 
seconds.  I realised right away what I'd been missing, and flew back 
into the PC world with a bit more insight.

As a result, I know that nice point-and-drool GUIs can educate about the 
underlying design and approach, but the design really must be considered 
very carefully.  It's also important to take away the "crutch" from time 
to time, too (going back to PCs, in the above example).

I've yet to see a GUI for a statistical software system that meets this 
criteria, and I can't imagine what one would look like (I'm an engineer, 
not a designer ;).  I don't even know if it can be done. I'm sure 
anybody who understood heirarchical filesystems prior to GUIs would've 
thought similar things - that if one can't understand something so 
basic, there's really no simplifying or alternate explanation that'll 
work.  Had that thinking prevailed, I might've been another engineer who 
doesn't know a thing about how computers actually work (there's no 
shortage, believe me).

Just my $0.05 NZ (exchange rates, and all)

Cheers

Jason
-- 
Indigo Industrial Controls Ltd.
http://www.indigoindustrial.co.nz
64-21-343-545
jasont at indigoindustrial.co.nz