[SI-LIST] User interfaces

"It took me a couple of days to get my first optimization going in
Hspice and about 20 minutes in Micro-Cap."

This is one of my pet peeves.

They should make this test a standard benchmark for the user interface
of all enginneering tools.

Get an engineer familiar with the problem the tool is designed to solve,
and measure how long it takes to get the tool doing basic operations.
Then measure how long it takes to get the tool doing something more
advanced.

If you are specialized then you can afford the extra time and effort it
takes to learn and use a tool. If you use the tool often enough that
knowledge stays with you.

If you are a generalist, such as a board designer, you may use the tool
a few times a year and it is often a relearning experience each time.
That time comes right out of a sometimes very tight schedule.

A quote someone once sent me:
    "Properly written software lets you abstract away from
    the mechanics of the software and live within the problem domain."

Advanced software does not have to be hard to use. To make a clear,
intuitive interface takes extra software resources and testing, but the
market for the product becomes much larger.

Another quote by the recently deceased inventer of the remote control,
Rober Adler:
"I think it's scandalous how little the people who design=20
these things seem to keep in mind that people don't know it=20
by heart as they do."=20

    -tom
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