Re: The Perpetual Myth of iSeries Obsolescence

["Trevor Perry" <tperry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Doug,

> Most people seem woefully unaware of how much you can (and should <g>) do
> using keyboard shortcuts, IMHO.
I agree. When I teach green screen users how to work more efficiently in 
their GUI, I show them the difference between field movement keys and cursor 
movement keys. It is amazing how much impact the lesson of Shift+Tab 
(BackTab) can have. Of course, this applies to green as well. And, how many 
people know that Alt+DownArrow will show the contents of a list/combo 
control?


> Regardless of that, I find that most users use the mouse incorrectly
Without question. However, that is simply because of lack of training. Teach 
them how to use a mouse, and their productivity will improve. Even if it is 
simply to move between the full screen green emulator and their Windows 
desktop applications.


> "Easiest" here comes down to a lack of training, like your example of 
> moving
> your hands from the keyboard to click an OK button.  Is that really
> "easier"?
Absolutely true about the training. But, for a user who sees an OK button - 
for which they KNOW what to do (you click it), it is "easier" for them to go 
with that. Trying to teach them to press Enter to activate the OK button is 
confusing in that regard.

I had an interesting experience with a green screen user once. We were 
implementing a GUI and he was resisting. He said he could NOT use a mouse. I 
said it was ok, since this particular GUI would work with the exact 
keystrokes as his green screen application. He still had some reluctance, 
but we pressed on. I did ask if he used the internet on his PC at home, and 
he said he did. We started the application, and the sign on screen was 
displayed. There were two entry fields and a "Sign On" button. He typed in 
his user name, tabbed, then typed his password. He then grabbed the mouse, 
and clicked the "Sign On" button. After I stopped laughing, I asked why he 
clicked the button. He said "because it was there, and that is what you do 
to a button". I mentioned to him that he might not have a problem with the 
mouse after all, and with that one small step, his resistance to the GUI 
completely disappeared.

Trevor