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| ▲ | actionfromafar 3 days ago | parent [-] | | They are like web forms. Fill in everything, then hit send. Fixed positions, shortcuts, tab-indexed, the order is usually smartly layed out. Zero latency. Very possible to learn how forms are organized and enter data with muscle memory. No stealing focus when you don't expect it. Optimized for power users, which is something of a lost art nowadays. GUIs were good for discoverability for a while but increasingly I think they are neither great for power users nor for novices, just annoying and yanky. | | |
| ▲ | bionsystem 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I remember airport hostesses when they used it to get your boarding pass from the mainframe, it took them 5 seconds and a few key-strokes like 3 letter of my name to get the job done. When they switched to web-uis some year, I vividly remember seeing them, 4 at a time on the same screen, trying to figure out what was going on. Took them 15 minutes and a phone call to get the boarding pass ready. I feel sad when I think about this. | |
| ▲ | mixmastamyk 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Were these 3270 or ansi terminals? | | |
| ▲ | actionfromafar 2 days ago | parent [-] | | 3270 | | |
| ▲ | mixmastamyk 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Right, that makes it easier to build a form-based interface. Other terminals can simulate the style, though there might be limitations I'm not familiar with. | | |
| ▲ | actionfromafar 2 days ago | parent [-] | | A limitation with character terminals is you need the remote end to be real-responsive at all times and that latency is a real killer. With a 3270 if the mainframe takes a second to give you the next form, that's not a UX problem at all. If your character terminal takes a second per keypress, that's very painful and l a g g y. But character terminals were much cheaper, worse is better, so it won out. |
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| ▲ | __MatrixMan__ 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | GUIs are for distracting otherwise uninterested users into doing what you want them to do. |
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