language and communication, Command Line vs. Gui

[<puff -at- guild -dot- net>]

Damien Braniff writes:
> Language is BAD at:
>      conveying complex information
>      spatial information
>      logic and cold analysis (we invented maths and other 'languages'
>      conveying emotions, senses and feelings
>
> Language is GOOD at:
>      Gossip, grooming and reputation setting
>      Showing off
>      Second (3rd, 4th etc) guessing
>      Deception and delusion
>      Marking identity thro' dialect

     This whole conversation is quite reminiscent of the classic "GUI
vs. Command Line" debate.  In general each has specific advantages and
disadvantages.  

     Recasting the discussion momentarily to GUI vs. Command Line
allows us to see some specific examples, which we can think upon.
Classically command-line interfaces are better for more complex
actions, which you want to repeat (automate) and which you want to
affect many objects with.  Command-line interfaces take more advantage
of our capacity for expressing complex thought in language.  GUIs are
better for using direct manipulation, and for using the selected
object to narrow down the range of possible actions.  GUIs take more
advantage of our ability to quickly perceive and interact with images.

     You might enjoy reading Scott McCloud's _Understanding Comics_
and _Reinventing Comics_, by the way, which touches on many of these
issues.  (Personally, I find comics, when done well, to be one of the
few art forms that hit both the left-brain language and right-brain
visual centers at the same time).

     To generalize the discussion, it's not language and images (I
started to write language vs. images and then edited that because I
think "vs" introduces an arbitrary and artificial dichotomy).  It's
symbolic vs. representative.  The english language is one of many
symbolic, pure iconic systems.  Unlike math and various other iconic
systems, english (and many other natural languages) has a lot more
flexibility and shading of nuance, a lot more ambiguity and fuzziness.
But that may be part of its greatest strength.

     I could spin more of this BS, but it's late and I don't think I'm
alert enough to force myself to write plainly.  I'll wrap this post up
by saying that there are several things I don't agree with in your
good/bad list above.  Certainly I suspect you'll have no problem
finding people here willing to argue that language is better for (or
at least good for) both conveying complex information and conveying
emotions.  The advantages or disadvantages, I suspect, lay more in the
areas of the kind of complex information.

     A picture may be worth a thousand words, but they have to be the
*right* thousand words.

Steven J. Owens
puff -at- guild -dot- net



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