[comp.cog-eng] when metaphor becomes reality

bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (12/06/89)

I stood   a cassette box  on  a  convenient ledge    in front of   the
lower-right corner of my  workstation display so that I  could see the
titles when the  cuts came around on  my  headphones.  Later,  I found
that the box was obscuring the contents of a window in that area of my
screen.  I used the mouse to bring  that window to  the front, and was
momentarily disappointed when it didn't obscure the  tape box.  Then I
realized with a  start that the  window probably wouldn't come all the
way to the front, no matter how many times I picked it.

A simple example  of momentary metaphorical  disorientation that shows
how far the mind  will stretch in its  attempt  to impose order on the
chaos around us...

rlh2@ukc.ac.uk (R.L.Hesketh) (12/06/89)

In article <BOB.89Dec5154524@volitans.MorningStar.Com> bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes:
>A simple example  of momentary metaphorical  disorientation that shows
>how far the mind  will stretch in its  attempt  to impose order on the
>chaos around us...

Try cut-and-paste from a piece of paper to the screen and see how silly you
feel when it still won't work after a couple of attempts!

It would be interesting to note how many people edit on paper
the same way they edit in a WYSIWYG system .. do you cross out and scribble
in a vane attempt to overwrite something or do you rewrite from scratch?
Can "composing at the keyboard" ever be considered on par with simply
copying in from paper?  Whilst there is a certain amount of redundancy
involved here .. can we justify it by saying that the time spent writing
on paper includes much needed thinking time to coalesce our arguments?

Richard

reggie@dinsdale.nm.paradyne.com (George W. Leach) (12/08/89)

In article <3404@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> rlh2@ukc.ac.uk (Richard Hesketh) writes:

>Try cut-and-paste from a piece of paper to the screen and see how silly you
>feel when it still won't work after a couple of attempts!

    Ah, but I have seen people put a piece of paper on the screen with an
outline drawing on it.  Then they proceed to trace the outline on the
screen with the mouse, thus generating a digitized version.




George W. Leach					AT&T Paradyne 
(uunet|att)!pdn!reggie				Mail stop LG-133
Phone: 1-813-530-2376				P.O. Box 2826
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barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) (12/15/89)

In article <BOB.89Dec5154524@volitans.MorningStar.Com>, bob@MorningStar (Bob Sutterfield) writes:

>A simple example  of momentary metaphorical  disorientation that shows
>how far the mind  will stretch in its  attempt  to impose order on the
>chaos around us...

I had the same problem when someone put a Post-It note on a monitor.

This gave me an idea for another project - A way to type in a note and
print it out, making the memo look like a window on a workstation.

You then cut out the window and tape it to someone's screen....

--
Bruce G. Barnett	<barnett@crd.ge.com>   uunet!crdgw1!barnett