Robert Martin recently wrote that "All language have quirks, and all
languages have to be learned. Once learned the quirks become incorporated
into your understanding of the language." This seems appropriate here.
A similar concept exists in HCI literature. It's called "cognitive
disonnance". You incur a level of "cognitive overload" until the
quirks become easily handled by your unconscious mind. At that point,
cognitive disonnance sets in, and all of the sudden the quirky HCI
interaction becomes a "standard" way of performing the task. Whoa is
he who might suggest that I unlearn my cognitive disonnance. Take VI
users who can't stand to learn another editor as an example. I have
to think the same concept applies to learing languages...
(redirect all flames on the VI example to /dev/null :-)
---- John Goodsen Currently on-site at: The Dalmatian Group JP Morgan User Interface Specialists 60 Wall St., New York City jgoodsen@radsoft.com jgoodsen@jpmorgan.com