Linux and fonts and Firefox and human-factors design

[Fred]

On Tuesday 31 October 2006 11:20, Tom Buskey uttered thusly:
...
> Of course most of those users have never seen anything else.  It's
> like using tools from Sears vs ones in a machinist's toolbox that were
> self created.  Most can't customize their tools like the machinist
> can/will.
>
> And that's too bad.  I remember hearing of some CAD guys on an old VAX
> based system that had programmed various gestures into the system.
> They could quickly put up elaborate drawings with a few strokes on the
> tablet.  It took years for them to get to that level and it
> disappeared when the VAX and the CAD software aged beyond its
> usefulness.  Needless to say, they had a lot of frustration with their
> next CAD system.

So we can say one key importance to a *real* UI that would actually be useful 
is customizable -- and more importantly, being able to migrate those custom 
fittings to new software.

One of the reasons I exclusively use the IMAP protocol for email is the fact 
I can migrate my mailbox folder layouts to *any* IMAP client on different 
computers. With POP, you're kinda stuck with the computer and client you 
initially use. 

I imagine some sort of "universal" customization language would be in order, 
perhaps an XML schema of sorts; it might require that every application 
class adheres to set standards to make this happen. Of course this will be 
met with resistance since commercial software producers really don't want 
you to be able to migrate all that easily. 

-Fred