Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (04/12/91)
Index Number: 14813
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Whats wrong with GUI(s)?
Just because we have no good GUI reading systems yet doesn't make
it a bad system. I hate icons, and think they are stupid, but thats not
how the real world is, and we can hate them all we want, but there ain't
no way we'll get rid of them even if its illegal to have them with us
using another system.
I don't feel they will remain the stumbling block they are now for
ever. Consider:
As Reading recognition technology gets better, and processing power
is cheaper, you get a Reading Machine for your PC. You already have a
simple on in the Arkenstone with its reading of FAX files.
The next step is a picture description method thats workable. For
example, how would a reader read a GUI to me? How would I listen to the
information if I could?
For example:
I want the <resize> icon to be moved over the <text window> so I
need the pointer at the <resize> icon. I need to hear the icon name,
and a way to do the command.
I see no inherently impossible stumbling blocks here, just a lot of
work and faster machines. We will be stuck in the middleground until
GUI doesn't mean a uncontrolled nonstandard system of input/output as it
often does now.
For example a gui on a system with multitasking as its base, such
as Unix, or OS/2, can be ruled by the voice user at some point the
information is not graphics, but information available to the many
programs involved in the operations of the multiuser system. You can't
have uncontrolled I/O on such a system. Maybe you could run "read to
me," in the background, and in forground just work, using the background
reading task as your aid.
This all sounds far fetched in the world of the 8086 machine, but
its coming anyway, just watch. Change is never easy and always has a
few bumps along the way, we'll last out this bump because the time
between the intro garbage GUI systems and the semi-full-fledged gui
systems will not last long.
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