[LUNI] Long stange trip.

[doug_dallmer]

The site below about CUPS is an excellent recap on the frustrations of non-technical, semi-technical, and a competent person's attempt to use Unix, Linux, and Windows.

I have been writing user application programs since the 1960's.  I am a user of applications.  I have no interest in becoming a hardware or operating system techie,  I just want to use the applications.

My favorite hot button is a form that asks for SSN or phone number and after entering 123-45-6789 and 630/123-4567 responds with the message "No non-numeric characters allowed" or some such.  Come on guys how difficult is it to process the input and strip out the non-numeric characters instead of forcing the user to inspect the form to find all of the places where the programmer was too lazy to handle the logical response of an Aunt Tillie.

My advice for programmers and companies selling products:  Before you release it to the public have the spouses of the top executives and top managers of the firm try to install / use / open the package.   Then fix all of the "huh", "what do I do here?" etc..  It is not idiot proof but it sure does eliminate 75% or more of the problem calls to a help desk.

Doug




Here's another take on cups from esr:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html

It's amusing, accurate, and on point for this discussion.
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Demetri Mouratis
dmourati at linfactory.com

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