Re: What moves on screen?

["David L. Bergart" <bodafu -at- CCVAX -dot- SINICA -dot- EDU -dot- TW>]

Michael LaTorra <mikel -at- accugraph -dot- com> writes:

> ....... The Question ...............
> Is a computer window unmoving while data scrolls behind it,
> or does the window move across files of unmoving data?

> ...... The Issues ..................
> [...] All of the Tech Writers thought that the window was fixed and
> the data moved, while the CS students believed the opposite.

> Is this division of opinion significant? [...]


The techwriters, whose job it is to explain things, focus on the thing -- the
window clearly sits in front of them and goes nowhere, while the text just as
clearly moves.

The CS students, who job it is to manipulate data in the machine, focus on
the manipulation -- the data is in the same place it always was (somewhere in
the computer), and the thing which has moved is the pointer to it (which
controls the virtual location of the window on the data)

Each view is appropriate to the work being done, and perhaps explains why so
few programers can document their work so that non-programers can understand
it.

My opinion, as a technical editor who writes computer programs:

The window moves on files of unmoving data:  If I want to see something
further along in the file, I press the key that has a down-arrow on it.  If I
want to see something to the right of the visible portion, I press the key
with the right-arrow on it.  There have been wordprocessors that work the
other way, but I'll bet you can't name one that is in current use.


David


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