From uucp Fri Aug 14 11:57:07 1981 remote from pur-ee
NAucbvax.2660
Nfa.unix-wizards
Npur-ee!cincy!duke!decvax!ucbvax!unix-wizards
NWed Aug 12 11:44:04 1981
NMisunderstanding about Unix.....
N>From Nowicki@PARC-MAXC Wed Aug 12 11:35:03 1981
NI would like to make a few comments on Donald Norman paper on "The
NTruth About Unix".  The arguments for Consistency, Simple Models, and
NMnemonic Aids should all be Motherhood, even though many system
Ndesigners continue to ignore them. (If you want consistent
Nabbreviations you can use RSX-11M for a while where all commands are
Nthree letters; then you'll appreciate Unix.)
N
NThe major mistake that is made, however, is failing to consider the
Npossible multiple levels of abstraction.  For example, the title says
N"The user interface is horrid", but in reality every level of
Nabstraction has a "user interface," namely its interface to the next
Nhigher level.  The motto of the Unix was not "let the user beware," but
Nrather, "make the primitives simple but powerful, so as much as
Npossible can be done at higher levels".  With his arguments, you could
Nsay that all man-computer communication is doomed to failure because it
Nuses only ones and zeros, which are not very mnemonic.  The real
Nproblem is that an appropriate level for a systems programmer is not
Nappropriate for casual end users.  This conclusion is hinted at near
Nthe end of the paper, but it means that the paper should not be a
Ncriticism of Unix itself, but rather a criticism of how people use
NUnix.
N
NThe point that someone reading only the first few paragraphs of the
Npaper can miss is that the primitives in Unix CAN be either easily
Nreplaced or encapsulated, while almost no other systems provide this
Ncapability.  As an example, two Stanford students have implemented a
NTOPS-20 style command interpreter for Unix.  It has arbitrary
Nabbreviations, <escape> command completion, the question-mark help
Nfacility, and a delete-undelete-expunge facility.  Version numbers for
Nbackup files are implemented with a simple suffix to the file name.
N
NThe real shame is that the Unix users themselves are forced to make the
Nsystem as distributed from Western more humane, and thus every wheel
Ngets reinvented many times.  Luckily groups like Berkeley and Usenix
Nare trying to help this situation, but as indicated progress is very
Nslow.
N
N	-- Bill
N
N
N