Quote #401
In an essay about programming, Ellen Ullman tells a great anecdote about a
programmer who was so socially inept that they could only communicate with
him via email, even they all shared the same office. She also writes:
"Pretty graphical interfaces are commonly called user-friendly. But they are
not really your friends. Underlying every user-friendly interface is
terrific contempt for the humans who will use it. ...to build a crash-proof
system, the designer must be able to imagine -- and disallow -- the dumbest
action possible. He or she has to think of every single stupid thing a human
being could do. Gradually, over months and years, the designer's mind
creates a construct of the user as an imbecile. This image is necessary. No
crash-proof system can be built unless it is made for an idiot."
In an essay about programming, Ellen Ullman tells a great anecdote about a
programmer who was so socially inept that they could only communicate with
him via email, even they all shared the same office. She also writes:
"Pretty graphical interfaces are commonly called user-friendly. But they are
not really your friends. Underlying every user-friendly interface is
terrific contempt for the humans who will use it. ...to build a crash-proof
system, the designer must be able to imagine -- and disallow -- the dumbest
action possible. He or she has to think of every single stupid thing a human
being could do. Gradually, over months and years, the designer's mind
creates a construct of the user as an imbecile. This image is necessary. No
crash-proof system can be built unless it is made for an idiot."
Related:
- UNIX is user friendly.
It's just selective about who its friends are... - dumbed down: adj. Simplified, with a strong connotation of
*over*simplified.
Often, a {marketroid} will insist that the interfaces... - TeX /tekh/ n.
An extremely powerful macro-based text formatter written by
Donald E.
Knuth, very popular in the computer-science community... - Macintrash: /mak'in-trash`/ n. The Apple Macintosh,
as described by a hacker who doesn't appreciate... - security through obscurity
(alt. `security by obscurity')
A term applied by hackers to most OS vendors' favorite way of
coping with security holes -
namely, ignoring them, documenting neither any known... - Macintrash /mak'in-trash`/ n.
The Apple Macintosh,
as described by a hacker who doesn't appreciate... - MFTL /M-F-T-L/
[abbreviation: `My Favorite Toy Language']
1.
adj. Describes a talk on a programming language design... - dumbed down adj.
Simplified, with a strong connotation of
oversimplified.
Often, a marketroid will insist that the interfaces... - Jacques: First, you must get to know your lane. Feel the slickness,
feel the slippery finish. Caresses it, experience it...
From the same category:
- Quote #350
"You are caught in a maze of twisty little Sendmail rules,
all obscure." -- _Sendmail: Theory and Practice_... - Quote #433
We are a nation of laws, poorly written and randomly enforced.
Frank... - Quote #79
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths... - Quote #67
SCCS, the source motel! Programs check in and never check out!
- Ken... - Quote #388
"What matters to me is the -writing-
the act of manufacturing the novel, because while...
