From: kk@unisql.UUCP (Kerry Kimbrough)
Subject: GUI Study -- do users want to build solutions?
Organization: The Internet
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NNTP-Posting-Host: enterpoop.mit.edu
To: visual.com!dbl@cs.utexas.edu
Cc: expo.lcs.mit.edu!xpert@cs.utexas.edu



   ...let me point out that both GUI-based word-processors and text-based
   formatters both have a language; one happens to be mouse- and
   action-based, and the other symbol-based.

True, but that's beside the point. This is a fact about an abstract model
of what the GUI users are doing, not about what they actually *are* doing.
This abstract model is only apparent from the perpective of a *programmer*
of the system. (NB: some users may see it, too, but only when they put
aside the work at hand and start thinking like a programmer.)

I'm not saying that the programmer's perspective is evil or stunted. After
all, that's what I do, too! I am saying that UI designers must carefully
distinguish between the user/programmer conceptual models, and they must
ultimately serve the user of the system, not the builder of the system. 


   I don't recall the actual stats, but something like 1 in 5 people can be
   categorized as a "symbol manipulator".

It would be interesting to know more about the meaning and basis for this
claim. At any rate, I don't think this is evidence that 20% of users think
like programmers. Bankers, financial analysts, structural engineers ---
these are all people whose work you could characterize as primarily symbol
manipulation. But what they do is not programming, and programming is not
required to do what they do. 

To restate my previous point: yes, users want to build their own solutions;
no, they do not want to do programming to accomplish this.
