Talk:Evolution of Operating Systems Designs/HCI: beyond WIMP

I marked the term CLI for further clarification, because although I believe it means Command Line Interpreter or Interface, it is by no means clear in the text what a CLI is. The same can be said of the term HCI which I think means Human Computer Interface, Defining the terms would at least make it obvious to people who are not current on the jargon, what is meant.--Graeme E. Smith (talk) 16:12, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Should this book say a few words about the command-line interface and the WIMP interface (historical predecessors) before launching into a discussion of post-WIMP interfaces? --DavidCary (talk) 05:42, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * This book is about the evolution of OS design, so surely it should say a lot more than just a few words? I suggest renaming the chapter to "User Interaction" and go into more detail not only about technology that goes beyond WIMP, but about also about past technologies as well. --dark lama  13:02, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

You know that is a good point, I have added some sub-modules here and there, and fleshed out some areas where I thought It needed more bulk, but I stayed away from changing the basic structure of the book for fear I didn't understand its structure. I even left in one of the original authors obvious bias against modern operating systems that I note you have now flagged. Since the original authors have no longer much interest in the book, what do we do about historical contributions that might be inaccurate?--Graeme E. Smith (talk) 15:12, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Major Issues and factual concerns
There are probably far too many issues here for me to list specifically, lest I begin to rewrite the page, which I sadly do not have the time for at present, but would encourage anyone editing in future to remove the blatantly opinionated statements first, and I would like to point out and critique a few of those statements to start off with:

" nearly all implementations of WIMP are broken variants without the full programmable power of CLIs "

Variants of what? "programmable power of CLI" - not defined or pre-defined

" Despite the decrepitude of WIMP " - Opinion, without observable basis.

" Fortunately, despite the total incompetence of mainstream OS designers, research in HCI has managed to sustain a snail's pace " - This is as far as I was able to read whilst retaining a credible outlook on this page as a source of information. It is completely inaccurate and derogatory.

In fact, after a brief read of the entire Wikibook, I suspect that this book needs to be scrapped, or completely re-written and I will return to this soon to assist.