Pthhbbbt. [06/03, pem]

Peter Mueller mueller@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE
Thu, 3 Jun 93 13:13:33 +0200


[Subject should be more like 'phew!']

I know, I know, I know. Actually I'm extremely too late. But I think I should
write something, too. Now.

I'm currently trying to get some order in my received Moose mails. A can't help
me, but I've read some of the 'Pthhbbbt' mails. I read some sort of:

... Moose should be useful ...
... Moose should be easy to program ...
... Moose should grab much acceptance ...

Well, well, well. Nice goals, though. But: How is it in reality? If you want 
Moose to be used in a wide spreaded user area you will have to consider the
following thing:

o  Users don't want to see changes. They don't want to learn a new system from
   scratch. They don't want to use, for example a different text processing
   system even if it is much better than their used old typewriter.
      If we want to make Moose attractive to the normal user, we have to offer
   well known interfaces. Sorry, I know the next sentence will make you flame
   me but it must be said: We have to provide a ms-dos-interface, we have to
   provide a unix-interface. The user must have the feel to work with ms-dos
   or unix, respectively. (OF COURSE: Moose can provide much better things.
   But these things must first establish themselves. And that will cost a 
   lot of time. BTW: There are many examples, where new technology was not
   accepted, although it provides fantastic advantages: It was not compatible
   to old, but used, systems.)

Ok. Now for the goodies. I think it is possible to provide Moose with such
attractiveness. And it is possible to make it available in such a way, that
new facilities can be used. The user will see those things, declares them as
useful, and will told them to his/her friends. And then distribution of Moose
will function automatically ... ;-) (That's the future view.)

Cheers,

Peter