Re: Green-screen versus browser

[Douglas Handy <dhandy@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nathan,

> Part of the effiency though is in downloading an
> entire score sheet to the browser, then submitting it
> to the server as a batch, as opposed to requesting
> server resources for each event triggered by the UI,
> such as changing the input format, popup windows, or
> paging.

And of course, 5250 is block mode so has the same "advantage".

> These particular scores are recorded by teachers, not
> data entry clerks, and done just three (3) times each
> year.

And for that frequency, it could be argued that the popups may be more
practical from an ease-of-use standpoint to let the user know what
they are supposed to enter.  My contention was that this is not an
example of where the GUI is more efficient in terms of data entry
speed.

I'll concede that GUI can be more intuitive.  But I also contend that
GUI's should be designed with keyboard users in mind as well.  A well
designed GUI, in my view, should allow power users to quickly navigate
the form without the need to use the mouse.  Yet I often see Win32
programs where the programmer failed to set an intelligent z-order to
controls so tabbing takes you in the sequence they added controls to
the form, instead of moving logically.  And where they don't add
accelerator letters (or don't make them unique or overlap them with
menu items).  For that matter, keyboard navigation is an area where I
think browser based entry can be far less efficient than a GUI program
in VB or VARPG or whatever.

Doug