somebody wrote:

> If you wanted to enter a matrix, for instance, the text based interface
> would ask you:
> 
> Number of rows? _
> Number of columns? _
> Item (0,0) ? _
> ... etc
> 
> Of course that was due to platform limitations.

Ah yes. So easy to program, but get half way through that and suddenly 
realise you need an extra row and... now you have a problem. ;-)

The trouble with this style of interface is that it absolutely forces 
you to do things in exactly the order that the machine wants. Of course, 
as you say, this is largely because it was too much pain to implement 
something better.

> With windows, there was a
> brief push to minimize modal interactions. Now we are coming full circle.

Apparently.

> Such interfaces are certainly much less work on the programmer

Definitely.

> and work well for novice users, who may not have a clue to what actions are
> available with a flat, discover-actions-on-your-own interface.

Depends on the domain. But yeah, they _can_ work well for some domains.

> They can also be an absolute PITA for advanced users.

Um, YES. :-/

> A good design should be able to
> accomodate either type of interface. MS does that sometimes (user management
> / advanced user management, for instance) although not consistently and not
> in the most fluid manner.

Vista seems to have less of this brain-deadness. But I haven't explored 
too far yet...

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