Cocoa mail archive
Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
FROM : I. Savant
DATE : Sun May 18 22:29:07 2008
On May 18, 2008, at 12:41 PM, Jens Alfke wrote:
> Maybe I'm taking this too personally, but I sense a subtext that
> some people think the task of software design itself is somewhat
> trivial, more like programming a VCR than like architecture or
> painting or chemistry
... well it *should* be. It probably *will* be some day (in the
distant future). but not today. Like any other technical profession,
it takes intensive research and studying (as you more or less said). I
share your frustration with some of the sentiment shown here.
An employer of mine was shocked - SHOCKED - to learn that the Great
and Powerful Cocoa did not automagically make a (statically-drawn)
graph in a custom view (which is all he originally asked for) fully-
interactive as in Excel with no extra development effort. He was even
more shocked (yes, SHOCKED) to learn that such an interactive view
would take a single developer months (probably a year or more) to
approach the lofty level of sophistication he described. He expected
it in a few weeks.
His words: "I thought Cocoa was the most advanced platform out
there." It sounded accusatory. I laughed and explained that the best
damned bricks and two-by-fours in the world won't suddenly self-
assemble and become a mansion. Drawing a pie chart is a far cry from
Excel graphs on steroids. That's a bit harder. Besides, I heard
steroids shrink your bullet points.
In short, I believe Cocoa is a victim of its own superiority.
People seem to expect:
"Computer, reconfigure the main deflector to transmit the entire
contents of Wikipedia in the form of tachyon bursts using a
triaxilating frequency on a covariant subspace band."
< The computer chirps happily, and those backward, planet-bound
savages now know all about our great nations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand
>
--
I.S.
DATE : Sun May 18 22:29:07 2008
On May 18, 2008, at 12:41 PM, Jens Alfke wrote:
> Maybe I'm taking this too personally, but I sense a subtext that
> some people think the task of software design itself is somewhat
> trivial, more like programming a VCR than like architecture or
> painting or chemistry
... well it *should* be. It probably *will* be some day (in the
distant future). but not today. Like any other technical profession,
it takes intensive research and studying (as you more or less said). I
share your frustration with some of the sentiment shown here.
An employer of mine was shocked - SHOCKED - to learn that the Great
and Powerful Cocoa did not automagically make a (statically-drawn)
graph in a custom view (which is all he originally asked for) fully-
interactive as in Excel with no extra development effort. He was even
more shocked (yes, SHOCKED) to learn that such an interactive view
would take a single developer months (probably a year or more) to
approach the lofty level of sophistication he described. He expected
it in a few weeks.
His words: "I thought Cocoa was the most advanced platform out
there." It sounded accusatory. I laughed and explained that the best
damned bricks and two-by-fours in the world won't suddenly self-
assemble and become a mansion. Drawing a pie chart is a far cry from
Excel graphs on steroids. That's a bit harder. Besides, I heard
steroids shrink your bullet points.
In short, I believe Cocoa is a victim of its own superiority.
People seem to expect:
"Computer, reconfigure the main deflector to transmit the entire
contents of Wikipedia in the form of tachyon bursts using a
triaxilating frequency on a covariant subspace band."
< The computer chirps happily, and those backward, planet-bound
savages now know all about our great nations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand
>
--
I.S.
