SPUG: Minimal Perl web site & notification requests

[Bill Campbell]

On Fri, Jun 17, 2005, Uri London wrote:
>
>It is expected that a mailing list that is basically a Unix technology
>(although Perl isn't technically Unix - it is still perceived as such),
>wouldn't miss any opportunity to bash Microsoft.
>
>It shouldn't be surprise then that when such a list is located in
>*Seattle* someone would reply.
>
>There were few assertions made in this thread that caught my eyes, and I
>feel the urge to reply:
>
>Bill Campbell mentioned a friend of him was 6 (six!!!) times more
>productive than her colleagues just by using vi! Are you claiming that
>given everything else is equal, vi would be 6 times faster than ms-word?
>Wow, that a serious claim beyond the regular Microsoft hatred.
>I'm not a fast person myself, and I'm actually more of a vi person than
>a Word person, yet I challenge anyone to do in 10 minutes with vi one
>hour worth of work.

I didn't make that observation myself, but cited Phil Hughes, publisher of
Linux Journal, owner of SSC, and a person sometimes noted for hyperbole.

I have had other professional writers, secretaries, and fast typists remark
that using MS-Word is horribly inefficient.  The office manager at the law
firm where we installed our first mission-critical Linux system as a
file/print server back in 1997 commented that her productivity dropped at
least 50% when the firm required that they move from WordPerfect for DOS to
MS-Windows.  Professial grade typists and data entry people lose
enormous amounts of time when they have to reach for a mouse or
use other GUI ``features''.

They also are very picky about keyboard layout.  I was managing a Radio
Shack Computer department at 19th and K Streets in Washington, D.C. when
the IBM PC first came out.  People would come in looking for systems to do
word processing and spread sheets, and I would demonstrate Scripsit on the
Radio Shack Model II which had a keyboard very similar to the IBM Selectric
with a good numeric keypad with the arrow keys and ENTER by the keypad.
Usually the firm's office manager/head secretary would be at the
demonstration, and I would give a quick hands-on tutorial on Scripsit.
Then I would send them around the corner to the IBM Product Center to try
the new IBM PC.  Invariably they would be back within the hour with the
secretary screaming about the horrible keyboard on the PC.

Bill
--
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Windows is a computer virus with a user interface!!