GUI

[David Gibson]

In article "GUI" in <!survex>, on Thu, 28 Feb 2002
Andy Waddington on Survey stuff <Survex@pennine.demon.co.uk> wrote

>Hmmm, I guess if you find Excel easier to use than a text editor ... I've
>never yet found a use for a spreadsheet - they are just one huge blind spot
>for me - seem to just be a way of making things a lot harder.

Really, Andy, you do exaggerate!  A spreadsheet with the power of Excel
has a million and one uses as a convenient general-purpose tool - as well
you know. The fact that *you* cant find a use for it is incidental.
 
One wouldnt *choose* to use Excel in preference to Survex but - when
Survex was unavailable to me - I used Excel to plot cave surveys.
Its dead simple: you just type in the data, add a few rows with
manipulating formulas, and obtain a (rough-and-ready) screen plot of plan
and elevation. Who needs Survex? :-) 

Ive also used Excel for Fourier analysis - again, I wouldnt necessarily
*chose* to, but my MatLab licence had expired - and I needed something
quickly. Personally, as a general-purpose tool I find Excel invaluable.
Youre obviously not working in the right sphere, Andy - so why should you
criticize it from such a lack of knowledge?

> My wife does
>our weekly menus and jobs lists in Excel 'cos they print out nicely, 

But that *is* a strange use for Excel. 
Why doesnt she use a Word Processor?

>I have to say that I find it an absolute bloody pain - a typical Windows
>product where the GUI seems mainly to get in the way of doing anything
>productive.

Come now Andy, that statement is nothing but inflammatory! 
The power of Excel (and MS Word come to that) vastly exceeds any
peculiarities of the user interface. Your stubbornness and blind spot for
Windows is not mirrored by the rest of the world.  In fact, you'll recall
the time you brought your computer to a caving club meet, and most of the
people present found it difficult or impossible to navigate around your
OS. Its merely a case of what you're used to - and what you're prepared
to learn!  For most of us, a skill in Windows GUI is required learning.
(And for an example of how utterly crap a command-line driven system can
be - try using MatLab).

Umm. Sorry, this is rather off-topic.  Rant over.
-- 
David Gibson