3 ms·
Xerox Parc's GUI changed the world in the Macintosh and Windows, bringing computing to the masses. The iOS-like GUI changed the world again in the iPhone, Andr
by nardi 12y ago
Xerox Parc's GUI changed the world in the Macintosh and Windows, bringing computing to the masses.
The iOS-like GUI changed the world again in the iPhone, Android, and the iPad.
The reason they did is that they were better. Not because they were pretty. You seem to be convinced that these paradigms were not massive improvements on their predecessors. I'm not sure how you manage to maintain that view.
What makes them better is that they are visual in nature. Human beings have an immense amount of latent machinery to help us deal with visual things. Literacy, on the other hand, is an incredibly recent phenomenon. Interfaces that are based on words for communicating semantics instead of primordial visual cues like space, size, contrast, color, movement, etc., will never be able to compete on intuitiveness/ease-of-use/ease-of-learning.
- rezistik 12y agoA CLI is more productive, generally while a GUI is more fun. They each have their own use cases. A CLI has an inherent learning curve no matter how great the API, a GUI requires physical interaction delaying potential working.
- flohofwoe 12y agoProblem I have with most touch interfaces (and to a wider extent the whole closed iOS ecosystem) is that they still have to show how they actually improve productivity. So far all we've seen is dumbing down the "user experience", turning computers from a productivity and creativity device into a pure media consumption device, glorified TVs basically. This is much much worse then the BASIC home computers of the 80's.
- teacup50 12y ago"Better" is a very subjective thing.