ELLISTON@BIOVAX.BITNET (Keith Elliston - Rutgers University) (02/08/90)
Stephen Clark writes... > >NO NO NO. This may work for a few people who are computer literate, which >immediately excludes 99% of molecular biologists. I support the GCG package >for roughly 100 molecular biologists who, for the most part, use the GCG >programs less frequently than once a month. It's a major trial for me to . . . > As far as the GCG programs are concerned, there is a solution to this >question of menu-driven vrs command-line-driven options, but it would >require some more work by the GCG staff. All that is required is to have >the program enquire about every option UNLESS that option is specified on >the command line by a switch. Most programs aready do this for sequence >names and regions of analysis. This way, a neophyte would have access to all >the power of the program without having to know all its intricacies before >*he starts, and VAX gurus could use the command line switches to avoid the >questions. If they get tired of typing all those switches (the power of >the GCG programs is their flexibility, which means lots of switches), then >they can define some symbols and stick them in their login.com. I agree with most of what Stephen says... most molecular biologists do not want to learn how to use the vax... they just want to get their results as fast as possible. For these types of users, I have attempted to solve this problem by implementing a simple menu that organizes the information for the staff. They can find their programs by subject, and you can define little unknown logicals like mpsix for map/six and etc... and just list it with the rest of the options on the menu. I serve about 150 users, and find that this menu is used by almost all of them. Even a majority of the expert users use this menu. What people may want is some sort of system like this, that cajoles the less expert users, but still allows the experts to use the system as they always have. I also find that if I offer a little course now and then, people will spend the time to learn the skills they need to do a particular task. I usually offer an intro to the GCG package as a one day course, and then specific topics like Protein sequence analysis, or sequence project management as half day affairs. I usually get a pretty good turnout, and also find that some people will repeat these courses to brush up on their skills. Anyway... thems my $0.02. Keith ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keith O. Elliston | Dept. of Biochemistry & Microbiology | Lipman Hall / Cook Campus Arpanet: ELLISTON@biovax.rutgers.edu | Rutgers University Bitnet: ELLISTON@BIOVAX | New Brunswick, NJ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: The Thoughts and Opinions expressed above are my own...... Besides, who else would want to claim them anyway??? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~