Apr 97 Viewpoint
Volume Number: 13
Issue Number: 4
Column Tag: Viewpoint
By Eric Gundrum
Just How Easy Is It?
With all this talk of a modern OS for Macintosh, I am becoming concerned that we may
be forgetting what made Macintosh so successful in the first place. Sure, we have many
state-of-the-art, interesting technologies, but the single most defining attribute of a
Mac is that it is so easy to use it is fun.
Unfortunately, as Apple piles on new technologies, our Macs become less easy to use. I
find that I, like many users, spend a significant amount of time configuring and
tweaking our systems to make them work better, or keep them working.
Everyone says this will be fixed in the new OS, Rhapsody, but I don't think Rhapsody
will be the second coming for the Macintosh world. No operating system, including
NEXTSTEP, is as easy to use as the MacOS. No other OS truly supports plug and play at
its core. With many years of brain drain, has Apple's ease-of-use expertise drained
away?
What's in a name
Do you recall the origin of the name "Finder"? The Finder was so named because, when
we double clicked a document, the Finder located the application that created the
document and use it to open the document. Macintosh users seem to take this for
granted, but no other OS does this, even today. All other operating systems rely on
filename extensions such as ‘.txt' and search paths which tell the OS in what
directories to look for applications. This capability of the Finder was a big revolution
in ease of use since the advent of personal computers; possibly even bigger than
graphical interfaces.
What the Finder does for applications is very much like the plug the play capabilities
of Macintosh hardware. Just drop a new application on a disk, and it is ready to use, no
configuration required; at least, that's the way it used to be.
Plug and play software
Over the years Apple's plug and play approach to software has eroded. Some software,
such as OpenDoc part editors, Apple Guide files, and system extensions, must be placed
on the appropriate "command path" for the OS to find and activate them. If that
description sounds a bit DOS-like, that's because it is. DOS and Windows require the
"PATH" variable contain a list of directories to search for applications; so does unix.
Application developers are no better. Many applications won't run if their necessary
files aren't found in the Preferences folder, or some other part of the Mac that doesn't
belong to them.
What ever happened to plug and play? What ever happened to this being my Macintosh,
configured the way I like it, with files organized in a way that makes sense to me?
Make it easier
I'd like to see Apple assign some engineering and design resources to making the Mac
easy to use again. The rumors I've heard about the upcoming MacOS releases are not
encouraging. The idea that I will have to use a multi-button mouse, or
control-option-command-click, is horrendous. It makes sense as a little-used menu
short-cut, but not as the primary interface.
Printers should be plug and play. If I connect another printer to my Mac, it should
automatically appear as a choice in the Print dialog; even if it is a serial-based
printer. Forget the Chooser, and forget other configuration files. I want it to just work
so I don't waste any more time on the phone talking my friends through setting up their
Macs.
Most of all, I want a plug and play file system. If Apple were to design a system-level
mechanism to link all files sharing the same signature, we could have some significant
improvements. When I trash an application, the Finder could automatically delete all
support files related to the application, or it could warn me if I still have documents
that require that application, and it could warn me to not trash any necessary support
files. Application developers could keep their stuff out of my System Folder if the OS
would automatically find the files for the application. OpenDoc part editors, or even
fonts, could be placed on any volume and still be found by the OS. Gosh, it would be so
Mac-like.
Has the ease-of-use of the Macintosh degraded in these past thirteen years? On
balance, probably not, but overall it doesn't seem to have improved much. Apple
certainly has their work cut out for them to bring this new OS to market. I hope they
don't lose sight of how important ease-of-use and plug-and-play has been to the
success of the Macintosh and will be to its continued survival.
So Long Old Friend
For many years Symantec's Top Ten has been a part of MacTech Magazine. Through this
column, Symantec's support staff have provided us with tips and suggestions to help us
get the most out of Symantec's development tools. With the emergence of the Internet as
such a strong vehicle for communicating with customers, we found it difficult to keep
the Symantec Top Ten filled with timely information. After many years of service, we
bid adieu to the Symantec Top Ten column. This will be its last issue. We are working
with the Symantec staff in hopes to find new ways to provide you with more interesting
information from this long-standing Macintosh developer tools publisher. Thank you,
Symantec.