[Coco] Why DECB is important to OS-9 folk.

[Robert Emery]

> That was in what I replied to. I concur and add that the other OS-9 stuff
> needs to be available. There must be a lot of attractive items in OS-9 to
> make the effort by a DECB person even get started. You and others may
> differ.

The most attractive item would be ease-of-use. OS-9 in it's various forms is
simply too much hassle for the average computer user to "enjoy". From my
perspective the Return on Investment (in terms of fun or productivity per time
spent getting to that point) is much lower in OS-9 than DECB. It looks to me
like 50% of this lists traffic is related to OS-9 difficulty (especially hard
drive related), 30% is meandering replies saying "it works fine for me", 10% is
*useful* OS-9 advice and the rest is DECB related or OT.

 
> >> That idea would place the user in a protected environment that all OS-9
> >> error messages are translated to DECB error numbers if possible.
> >
> > This would be an improvement?
> 
> Yes. If a DECB person saw an ERROR 190 they would not understand.
> Not even if " 190 INTERNAL INTEGRITY CHECK - System modules or data are
> changed and no longer reliable" was shown. How long would it take for them
> looking in the OS-9 Technical Reference to understand. I using my knowledge
> of OS-9 understand right away. There are many more. Yes they do not happen
> very often but when they do I understand and further know what steps to take
> immediately to save my work in progress. How about a 210 or a 217?
> 
> We OS-9 folk have a content to place new things in to understand them
> quickly. The DECB folk may not have that content, some will of course.

Now it sounds like you're just talking down about DECB users. We had to read
the manual to figure out DECB error codes too... they are just easier to
remember since they are mnemonic rather than numeric. In time, and seeing
enough of them (no problem in OS-9) anyone can eventually remember either
system, but obviously "?FC ERROR" is easier to remember than "Error #247" or
whatever. Sure, you have a tool to convert those cryptic numbers into text, but
what if the error is something that prevents that from working? Time to start
digging through that phone directory of a User's Guide. 2 more hours wasted,
figuring out what the error is and then how to fix it.

> 
> Translating to DECB error codes allows them to understand using their DECB
> context.

Just put it in English... even we DECB folk can use that to some extent. I
suspect there are a significant number of OS-9 errors that have no context or
relationship whatsoever with any DECB codes.


> Think about the "DIR" utility. It's output could be filtered by the shell
> for DECB folks.

Why? I don't think DIR output is a problem, even for us DECB users. 

If you want to get DECB users into OS-9, I agree that a nice Basic shell that
bears some resemblance to DECB would be nice, but only if you don't need 5
years of OS-9 experience to get it working. I look forward to the first OS-9
"One-Liners" contest.

cheers,
Bob



	
		
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