6 ms·

Not just accountants. I remember watching fully “non-technical” insurance admin / customer service people play the green screen keyboard like they were concert

by jl6 2y ago

Not just accountants. I remember watching fully “non-technical” insurance admin / customer service people play the green screen keyboard like they were concert pianists. People can cope with a lot when they have to.

karlgkk 2y ago
I wouldn't say, cope, the green screen stuff has predictable field input, and predictable rules around selecting elements. Despite its obvious downsides, for people who do regular form input and editing, it's often better than the flavor of the day web framework IMO I mean, I wouldn't choose to use it, but I get it
johannes1234321 2y ago
There is a learning curve, but not coping. One of the crest things with terminal: with experience one can type ahead, even before the form fully opened one can type data, which is queued in the input buffer and work efficiently. In a modern GUI application a lot of time is wasted with reaching for the mouse, aiming and waiting for the new form to render. That requires coping with it
- avhception 2y ago
  Case in point: the aforementioned accountant obviously hated the new GUI-based app, exactly because of what you said. Aiming the mouse, looking for that button, etc. slows you down.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    It doesn't have to. The tab order seems shortcuts are there and very usable... if anyone bothers to implement them.
    - johannes1234321 2y ago
      Not only implement, but implement them consistently and making users aware. Consistency is a thing. Old windows apps often followed a style guide to some degree, that was lost with web (while it's also hard, as styleguides differ between systems, like Windows and Mac) and wasn't ever as close as Mainframe terminal things where function keys had global effects.
      - mcculley 2y ago
        Indeed. One of the things I keep having to tell younger people is: “webapps have no HIG!” All of the major platforms have a HIG that tells developers how to maximize the experience for users. Webapps have dozens of ways to do things like “search”. Those who never developed for a platform with a HIG do not value it and keep reinventing everything.
- barrkel 2y ago
  In a native single-threaded UI, you can type ahead too. But it doesn't work on the web unless the page effectively reimplements an input queue.
- skydhash 2y ago
  I had to interact with a windows software which allows you to collect data with a digital form. We used it to digitize paper based survey by mapping free form question to a choices list. The best oart was that it was entirely keyboard driven. If you can touch type, you can just read the paper and type away. The job was mind numbing, but the software itself was great.
dpe82 2y ago
I worked at Best Buy as a high school teenager just before they switched the green screens to some GUI monstrosity. Everyone in the store had to learn how to use the green screens (sales people, cashiers, techs, stockers - everyone) and after a few weeks / months you would get CRAZY fast. A few years later in college I worked there again and by that point they'd transitioned to a much slower GUI that basically just wrapped the underlying green screen system. The learning curve was slightly better, but it wasn't nearly as fast. Purpose-built mainframe-based TUIs were amazing. We lost a lot in pursuit of colored pixels.

by jl6 2y ago

karlgkk 2y ago

I wouldn't say, cope, the green screen stuff has predictable field input, and predictable rules around selecting elements. Despite its obvious downsides, for people who do regular form input and editing, it's often better than the flavor of the day web framework IMO I mean, I wouldn't choose to use it, but I get it

johannes1234321 2y ago

There is a learning curve, but not coping. One of the crest things with terminal: with experience one can type ahead, even before the form fully opened one can type data, which is queued in the input buffer and work efficiently. In a modern GUI application a lot of time is wasted with reaching for the mouse, aiming and waiting for the new form to render. That requires coping with it

avhception 2y ago
Case in point: the aforementioned accountant obviously hated the new GUI-based app, exactly because of what you said. Aiming the mouse, looking for that button, etc. slows you down.
- viraptor 2y ago
  It doesn't have to. The tab order seems shortcuts are there and very usable... if anyone bothers to implement them.
  - johannes1234321 2y ago
    Not only implement, but implement them consistently and making users aware. Consistency is a thing. Old windows apps often followed a style guide to some degree, that was lost with web (while it's also hard, as styleguides differ between systems, like Windows and Mac) and wasn't ever as close as Mainframe terminal things where function keys had global effects.
    - mcculley 2y ago
      Indeed. One of the things I keep having to tell younger people is: “webapps have no HIG!” All of the major platforms have a HIG that tells developers how to maximize the experience for users. Webapps have dozens of ways to do things like “search”. Those who never developed for a platform with a HIG do not value it and keep reinventing everything.
barrkel 2y ago
In a native single-threaded UI, you can type ahead too. But it doesn't work on the web unless the page effectively reimplements an input queue.
skydhash 2y ago
I had to interact with a windows software which allows you to collect data with a digital form. We used it to digitize paper based survey by mapping free form question to a choices list. The best oart was that it was entirely keyboard driven. If you can touch type, you can just read the paper and type away. The job was mind numbing, but the software itself was great.

dpe82 2y ago

I worked at Best Buy as a high school teenager just before they switched the green screens to some GUI monstrosity. Everyone in the store had to learn how to use the green screens (sales people, cashiers, techs, stockers - everyone) and after a few weeks / months you would get CRAZY fast. A few years later in college I worked there again and by that point they'd transitioned to a much slower GUI that basically just wrapped the underlying green screen system. The learning curve was slightly better, but it wasn't nearly as fast. Purpose-built mainframe-based TUIs were amazing. We lost a lot in pursuit of colored pixels.