I am only copying this back to the list as the ergonomics of product design
is a concern for us all.


>        The question was raised as to what other kinds of information gets
>missed.  Well, a perfect example occurs in Microsoft Word.  When somebody
>misspells a word, the automated spell checker draws a wavy red line under
>it.  No text is generated, but that's not bad.  What's bad is the fact that
>no standard alarm type routine seemed to exist to allow for the screen
reader
>to detect that something had happened so that it could hoot
>or laugh or trigger a whip to crack over the typist head.

Nope, I think you should think about this one. The wavey lines (grammer
checker as well) is there because it is unobtrusive. You can choose to
correct the word there or then, or leave it till later and go back and
correct it in one big batch. Also it shows exactly which word is misspelt,
which is often through mistyping rather than bad spelling. A constant
'bing'ing sound in the background is going to p*ss people off, as well as
breaking the flow of concentration. Also the text reader will have to speak
the surrounding words, plus the misspelt words, thus creating a cacophony of
intrusive noise whilst 'creating'. Not something that any of my blind
friends would appreciate.

>        If I sound harsh or sarcastic, it is because people who know a lot
>more than I do say that it is totally possible to have a GUI for those who
>need or want it and also have ways to allow other types of input and output
>to peacefully coexist with the GUI.

Not wishing to sound harsh or sarcastic, in the previous mail I told you how
to do it now. The thing is in lot of applications which implement their own
drawing, it is done because their is a specific need to do so. What is word
without print styles or WYSIWYG? It's notepad with a spell checker. The
layout is very important in producing a document that can work effectivly
(sad, but true).

>Microsoft has been told repeatedly about these problems for
>five or six years by now and they are doing far too little.

Why just blame Microsoft? If the next best thing to come out is Java (ha!),
why aren't the features built into there as well, if it is possible?
Certainly, some of the concepts inside may help with the description of
dialogs, but applications where layout is important will always end up doing
raster output and having the same problems.

This is the perfect oppertunity for a third party to come in and design some
standards. If other software manufacturers like the idea they will
incorporate it into their office products and put MS on the backstep. Then
MS have to buy the company for huge money. Technology gets incoporated into
windows. Everybody uses it. Everybody wins. Is anybody doing this? Nope.
Perfect oppertunity for people with their big mouths to practice what they
preach and implement it. Maybe somebody should stop trying to implement the
30th shell for linux or their arcade emulator and do this. It is not very
difficult.

Why is nobody doing this?  Because they either believe the size of the
market is too small to warrent the attention and that the development effort
could be more profitable by picking a bigger market. Unfortunately companies
want to earn money. Maybe the charities should fund the research? Perhaps we
should get a lottery grant to research this. Maybe I would have a go if I
was not so bloody bored with computing thesedays :-)

BTW, if anybody does do this there is an automatic 10% fee for the business
plan :-)

>  They are
>Vic tomes of their own success.  Otherwise, we would go somewhere else and
>do something else.:-(
Yep. Finding solutions is what we are supposed to do isn't it? Standing
around whinging about it and expecting other people to do it never has any
effect does it?

Regards
Catchy.