X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1812" "Fri" "10" "October" "1997" "18:37:48" "GMT" "Phillip Helbig" "helbig@MULTIVAC.JB.MAN.AC.UK" nil "32" "GUI (was: Re: LaTeX & email)" "^Date:" nil nil "10" nil nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id TAA21570; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:43:54 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <4.4D3EF6FF@listserv.gmd.de>; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:43:53 +0200 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 212202 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:43:41 +0200 Received: from multivac (multivac.jb.man.ac.uk [130.88.24.128]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id TAA22686 for ; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:43:39 +0200 (MET DST) X-VMS-To: SMTP%"LATEX-L@relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de" X-VMS-Cc: HELBIG Message-ID: <97101018374796@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk> Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:37:48 GMT From: Phillip Helbig Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: GUI (was: Re: LaTeX & email) Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2439 > I have some experience of this on UNIX, because the standard text > oriented program "mail" is one of the few that does not corrupt the > mailbox, and it is still possiblle to pick it down to another computer. VMS MAIL is much more than the standard UNIX mail:) > But really few uses non-GUI these days, even on UNIX, and the GUI's are > much easier to use; and ease of communication is the true purpose. I tend to avoid GUIs for four reasons. 1) If one can `properly' type, then a hand on the mouse means a hand not on the keyboard and really slows one down, whereas doing things from the keyboard (not necessarily typed commands, but using hot keys like the keypad on VTxxx terminals and so on, which one can programme to suit individual needs etc) is much quicker. 2) There is less risk of clicking in the wrong place. 3) It is easier when logging in remotely (like from a conference on the other side of the world) since an ASCII screen interface must transmit much less information across the net. 4) It consumes less resources. Sure, computers are faster, but right now I have a multi-day batch job running which is getting over 99.5% of the CPU time, and I don't notice this AT ALL when doing email, whereas I probably would with a GUI, or if I didn't I would slow down the batch job, which I don't want to do. -- Phillip Helbig Email ... helbig@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories Tel. ..... +44 1477 571 321 (ext. 297) Jodrell Bank Fax ................. +44 1477 571 618 Macclesfield Telex ................. 36149 JODREL G UK-Cheshire SK11 9DL Web .... http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pjh/ My opinions are not necessarily those of NRAL or the University of Manchester.