Survex 1.1.1 test version uploaded

[Andy Waddington on Cave Surveying]

On Wednesday 2004-10-13 16:00, Jenny Black typed:

> -- andrew wrote:
> > But why would you want to write code for people who don't read
> > manuals ? It is just asking for ignorant stupid people to use your
> > software (who aren't the sort of people you want surveying caves
> > anyway) and wasting your time with support emails.
> 
> The "sort of people you want surveying caves" are people who are reasonably 
> intelligent, can read instruments, write down numbers and draw sketches. 
> This is not the same as being computer literate.

I am not suggesting for one moment that cave surveyors (doing the work
underground) need to be computer literate. But ones doing the data processing
need to be the sort of people who think about what they are doing, and
understand enough of the theory behind it that they will not do things which
give silly results and totally fail to spot this. These are exactly the sort
of people who, in my experience, would want good documentation and
would read it. What you don't want is something that tells you how to make
sumps show up pink when you are trying to concentrate on why two passages
that have just been connected by cavers appear to be nowhere near each
other on the survey.

> I think it is important  
> that Survex is not just designed for very computer literate users, but for 
> anyone may survey some cave.  However, I suspect that it is generally the 
> more computer literate users that frequent the mailing list, and so most of 
> the opinions and feedback does not come from the "average user".

Although it is a list for Survex users, as well as developers, it is the
latter who conduct most business here..  All developers find it very hard to
get useful feedback out of real users, so comments are most welcome.
However, I would still contend that someone who is driving Survex should
probably be the sort of person who is happy to read a manual to find new
and possibly obscure features. "Tip boxes", by their nature, tend to tell
you about things that are not so basic that you can learn them just by
playing with the software, or by reading the first two pages of the manual.
So the chances of a tip being relevant to what you want to do right now
are small. Having such tips off by default and needing a read of the manual
to turn them on seems entirely appropriate.

> (Someone who ... represents ....
> perhaps people who are put off from using Survex as they  
> think you need to be a "computer nerd" to use it)

I hate to think of people using technology without understanding
what it does, even if I tolerate them doing so without uinderstanding
how it does it. I think you _should_ be a surveying theory nerd, in
the sense of knowing what Survex is trying to do (and how you would
do it without a computer, using a calculator and paper), in order not
to inadvertantly think that the tool was intelligent enough to stop you
making errors. That sort of person _would_ read manuals...

Its probably a point of view which is quite alien to 95% of people using
computers today...

Andy