Re: Please advise

Leslie, While I would agree with all of your remarks I would make some 
additional judgements.  First, the examples you give of GUI are really not 
GUI at it's best.  Screen scrapers are after all limited to what the data 
stream allows, and to what the green screen developer puts out there.

Good GUI architecture can provide the accelerator keys, mouseability, and 
validity checking not otherwise available.  I'd add too that from a 
performance point of view well designed event-driven programming can stomp 
all over cycle driven interactive screen programming in short order.

I have realized now after doing a bit of event-driven stuff that my whole 
approach to green screen programming has changed and that interactive 
programs I do now are dramatically different then a year ago.  Now, where 
allowed, I use radio buttons and checkboxes, user-changeable default 
actions for the enter key, a settings window for filters & display 
settings, a 27 X 132 display size, pushbuttons, scrollbars where 
appropriate, and dropdown boxes.  I'm also tending more toward an event 
driven program style even though I like the RPG cycle.  I find this 
combines the nice things from the GUI empire with green screen stuff.  I'm 
also finding that a lot of user-training goes away with this sort of 
approach. 

In short, while I feel screen scraping doesn't show GUI at its best, I am 
convinced we are not showing green screen at it's best either.

_______________________
Booth Martin
boothm@earth.goddard.edu
http://www.spy.net/~booth
_______________________




"L. S. Russell" <leslier@datrek.com>
Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
01/12/2000 04:40 PM
Please respond to MIDRANGE-L

 
        To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: Please advise

 You will never, and I mean never
convince me that data entry types want a GUI interface to their
applications. I have tried it with seagull and other screen scrapers and
always gotten hostile response. 
I admit, and agree that the 400 is not strong in the gui arena but I
don't think it is data entry types who are driving the surge toward gui.
I think the bedazzled developers are not think about the data entry
personnel when the shove a point and click interface down the users
throat.
Take BPCS GUI order entry module as a case in point, it was so slow and
unwieldy that we had to discontinue implementation, the customer service
department just could not use the darn thing, and they didn't want to be
forced to go back and forth between mouse and 10 key all day long.


--
L. S. Russell Programmer/Analyst
Datrek Professional Bags, Inc.


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