.ogg to .mp3 converter

[Brandon Sandrowicz]

On Dec 18, 2007 3:09 PM, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 12:20:54PM -0500, Brandon Sandrowicz wrote:
> > Should we start using line-feed printers too?  Text-based photoshop?
> > VT100 OpenOffice.org with TrueType fonts?
> >
> > Looking pretty doesn't necessary affect usability, but things like
> > having a listbox that someone can drag files into and then hit a
> > button that says "convert" is a lot easier than having to teach
> > someone regular expressions just to use something.
>
> If it involves dragging, it is already broken.  There must be a way to
> do it without dragging.  Dragging is a surprisingly odd concept to many
> users, and it is not at all obvious that such an operation should be
> possible (or in some stupid cases required).
>
> > You don't argue that power steering is for wussies and everyone that
> > owns a car should be able to pull a MacGuyver whenever part of the
> > engine breaks (using toothpicks and chewing gum to replace the fan
> > belt or something).
>
> Power steering does not make steering difficult or more time consuming.
> GUIs do make things take more time.
>
> > While text-based might be perfectly workable I would hardly say it's
> > as intuitive to new users as many of the conventions of a graphical
> > interface.  But I don't want to get into an argument about graphical
> > vs text.  I've had many discussions about how "intuitive" things are
> > with people on Mac forums and it's like bashing your head against a
> > wall.  People have different ways of looking at things and you're not
> > going to make it completely intuitive to everyone until word
> > proccessing becomes something like Snow Crash, where you sit down at a
> > virtual desk in a virtual world to write your memo on a virtual peice
> > of paper.
>
> A text menu or prompt can in many cases be much more obvious than a GUI.
> The majority of programmers make very very bad GUI designs.
>
>
> --
> Len Sorensen

I won't argue with you that a lot of GUI design is broken though.  You
say a prompt too, but prompts are not immediately obvious.  Have you
ever tried to play a text-based adventure that gave you no guidelines?
 Things like needing to know a specific verb for what you want to do
when maybe a synonym is the first word that you think of?  Is it "use
food?" Or is it "eat food?"  Or is it "cook food" then "eat food?"  Or
is it "cook food" then "use food?" etc...

And less time consuming != easier for people to figure out and work
with.  Even text-based can be more time-consuming at times.
Especially if you are trying to select a whole batch of files (as long
as the GUI designer wasn't so brain-dead as to disallow you to make
multiple selections in the open dialog box).

I'll admit that for power users, using a terminal can be quicker, but
I don't think that the average user is going to give up the GUI.  If
you really get down to it, neither GUI nor text is the most efficient.
 The most efficient will be when we get thought recognition, and
people can tell the computer exactly what they want it to do.  Or at
least really really good voice recognition (though that's debatable).

--
Brandon Sandrowicz
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