mikem@telxon.UUCP (Michael Molnar) (10/30/90)
Our department was seeking justification for converting standard ASCII
terminal (GraphOn 230's) over to NCD X-Terminals. Well, the gnashing of
teeth is over, upper management is convinced that we need them and the
check is as good as in the mail.
But the justification did not come easy. In this three part article I
document the saga of trials and tribulations. This part 2 of 3 presents
the qualitative arguments for X terminals over standard ASCII terminals.
A COMPARISON OF ASCII AND X TERMINALS
=====================================
ASCII terminal examples: VT100, GraphOn-230, Qume, Tab32
X terminal example: NCD-16
X TERMINAL
ASCII TERMINAL (what I can do with it, that
(what I can do with it) I cannot do with an ASCII Terminal)
----------------------------- -----------------------------------
(GENERAL FEATURES)
Review a screen of 1920 Review a screen of 12705
characters. characters.
Use one application at a time. Use multiple applications concurrent-
(can run many programs con- ly. (can view and manipulate every
but can only view output of one) program running.)
Edit one file at a time. Multiple files of different types
Multiple files can be edited, may be edited concurrently.
dependent on the editor. However, (files and editors from different
this only applies to ASCII files.) systems may be used concurrently also)
Can cut and paste output between
applications.
User can be notified of incoming
electronic mail without interruption
of work.
Able to iconify windows(applications)
to save state of current work which
may be returned to at a later time.
(ANALYSIS)
Can work on one problem at a Can work on several problems at a
time. If another problem time. No need to interrupt one
or question comes up, I must analysis thread to start another
interrupt the application analysis thread. This saves
currently in use by either time.
quitting it entirely, or
suspending it (if the appli-
cation permits it), and fire
up a new problem context.
When that thread of analysis is
exhausted, I quit that appli-
cation and resume the previous
problem.
During an analysis, the The results of n shells can be
results of only one shell can viewed at one time.
be viewed at one time.
(SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT)
Allows for use of new software
development techniques and
methodologies.
(Computer Aided Software Engineering
(CASE) tools are highly graphical in
nature. These tools will help deploy
better development techniques and
reduce maintenance costs.)
Allows for use of multi-window
editors and debuggers.
(Will reduce development time.)
Allow for use of graphical application
builder software from ORACLE
(CaseDesigner)
Requires continual rebuilding and Can maintain editing, compiling, and
switching between editing, compiling testing frames concurrently.
and testing frames
Consider the following insert from an engineer's impression and savings
expressed by the usage of the X-window environment:
X terminals provide the ability to work in a windowing
environment. This will cut development time by almost
1/3. Consider the following example:
Suppose it takes approximately 3 minutes to setup
from editing window frame to compile window frame on
a normal ASCII terminal. Suppose it also takes 3
minutes to setup from compile window frame to testing
window frame and 3 minutes to setup from testing
window frame back to the editing window frame and
there are 3 development "cycles" per hour. This
implies that there will be 24 cycles in a normal work
day. At 9 minutes setup time per cycle, a total time
of 216 minutes are used for setup alone. A windowing
environment will save 2 hours and 36 minutes a day
in setup time! A simple movement of the mouse will
enable a user to change from window frame to window
frame with no change required to each individual
window. This implies that a user does not have to
even exit at text editor or debugging program!
Can edit several files within Can edit many files within more
one editor at a time. than one editor at the same time.
Must quit or suspend the Can consult the manual pages while
editor to consult the on-line the program is still in the editor
system manual. Can read one and still in the field of view.
manual command at a time. Can open several man pages at once.
Can cut and paste structures from
from the manual into the current
program.
Can cut and paste structures from
the file in one editor, to the file
in another editor.
X TERMINAL
ASCII TERMINAL (what I can do with it, that
(what I can do with it) I cannot do with an ASCII Terminal)
----------------------------- -----------------------------------
(USER DOCUMENTATION)
Must use normal wordprocessor to Allows for use of desktop publishing
create user documentation. software (FrameMaker) to create
(Lacks professional quality.) polished end-user documentation.
Can more easily preview documents
without printing due to larger screen
size and better tools such as a
postscript previewer.
(SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION)
Can monitor one system at a time. Can continuously monitor multiple
systems concurrently.
System administration work interrupts System administration functions can
other work. be done at same time as other work.
(Can only do one thing at a time.
Can take advantage of graphical
software for monitoring system load
and cpu state.
(GRAPHICS)
Can display Tektronix style plots. Can display Tektronix style plots
along with bit-mapped images.
Can construct graphically oriented
packages using X library.
The above comparison was part of the justification presented to management.
Unfortunately, these arguments were not sufficient to convince management
that we really needed X. What they wanted were numbers. Dollars. Pay
back.
So, stay tuned to this newsgroup for the cliff-hanging conclusion of
"Ergonomics of X terminals".
--
Mike Molnar | uunet!telxon!mikem | (216) 666-4300
TELXON Corporation |-----------------------------------------------------
91 Springside Drive | "No, mom and dad, don't touch that! It's evil!"
Akron, OH 44313 | -- Time Banditsmikem@telxon.UUCP (Michael Molnar) (10/30/90)
Our department was seeking justification for converting standard ASCII
terminal (GraphOn 230's) over to NCD X-Terminals. Well, the gnashing of
teeth is over, upper management is convinced that we need them and the
check is as good as in the mail.
But the justification did not come easy. In this three part article I
document the saga of trials and tribulations.
This is part 3. The conclusion of a three part series on "Ergonomics
of X terminals". In the previous parts, I presented the replies from
other X users, and the qualitative arguments which our group presented
to management.
But management was still not convinced. They wanted real reasons.
Spell that $$$$. So here is how our group replied ....
(For commercial reasons, the actual $$$ for Burden rate and cost of X
terminals can not be presented.)
X-window savings for User Support.
(Our group has two major purposes, to write tools for Corporate
use and to support those tools.)
Types of support sessions
1. consultation - answering user question requiring only viewing
data on system.
2. system help - solving system problem for user requiring modification
of data.
Support time using Ascii terminal (The below times are for one person.)
Session Type Number of Time spent Time spent returning Total
sessions with user to previous work Time
per day per session per session per day
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consultation 3 5.0 2.5 22.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Help 4 10.0 5.0 60.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 7 7.86 3.92 82.5
Support Time Using X-window Terminal
Session Type Number of Time spent Time spent returning Total
sessions with user to previous work Time
per day per session per session per day
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consultation 3 3.0 0.0 9.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Help 4 8.0 0.0 32.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 7 5.86 0.0 41.0
Support Time Savings
Session Type Ascii X-window Time Savings per Day
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consultation Time 22.5 9.0 13.5
(minutes)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Help Time 60.0 32.0 28.0
(minutes)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Time 82.5 41.0 41.5
(minutes)
User Time - time costs for user requesting support
Ascii X-window Time Savings
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Time
Per Session 7.86 5.86 2.00
(minutes)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of
sessions
per Day 7 7 7
(minutes)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Time per Day 55.02 41.02 14.00
(minutes)
IR Programmer Time - conservative depiction from engineer's impression
Number of
context Time to Time to Time to Total
Switch Switch Switch Switch Time
cycles to editor to compiler to test per day
per day (minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ascii 12 1.0 1.0 1.0 36.0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
X-window 12 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Savings 0 1.0 1.0 1.0 36.0
Since the person both (1) offers support and (2) programs, the total savings
per day (minutes) is
Support 41.5
User time 14.0
Programming time 36.0
----------------------------
Total 91.5
Conservative effective
Work Ratio 70%
----------------------------
Real time savings per
Day 64.0 minutes
Real time savings per
week 5.33 hours
Real time savings per
month 22.24 hours
Actual savings per month = time savings per month x Burden Rate
($$/month) (hours) ($/hr)
Cost of NCD X-terminal = NCD
Pay-Back Period = NCD / Actual Savings per month
(months) ($) ($$/month)
The bottom line was management was convinced that X-terminals would be
a wise capital acquisition.
--
Mike Molnar | uunet!telxon!mikem | (216) 666-4300
TELXON Corporation |-----------------------------------------------------
91 Springside Drive | "No, mom and dad, don't touch that! It's evil!"
Akron, OH 44313 | -- Time Bandits