Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 10:39:39 -0600
Reply-To: Max Martin <mmartin@EDGEWOOD-SA.K12.TX.US>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: Max Martin <mmartin@EDGEWOOD-SA.K12.TX.US>
Subject: Re: Feelings about 9.0 Features?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
The Text Wizard appears to be very similar to the one in Excel. I guess I
got used to using the one in Excel, because this feature (in 9.0) seems fine
to me. Ialso used the "Read ASCII Data" dialog box to great advantage in vs.
8 & below, so I don't know yet how this new Wizard will work for me. It may
be a matter of WYUT (What you're used to).
Max Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Oliver <richard@SPSS.COM>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.spssx-l
To: SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
Date: Saturday, February 27, 1999 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: Feelings about 9.0 Features?
>Michael Lacy wrote in message <7b3nn3$43q6@lamar.ColoState.EDU>...
>>Just found a new feature in 9.0 that peeves me, and wanted to solicit
>>others' reactions: Read ASCII Data has been changed to a 'Text Wizard'
>>thingie---Doesn't the use of the word 'Wizard' already warn you that
>>something bad is about to happen? It now involves a visual/physical
>>analogue in which one drags markers across a scaled analog of the
>>input line. In ergonomic terms, it's a real problem, requiring
>>considerable manual dexterity, and being *much* slower than simply
>>typing in column locations for fixed format input.
>>
>>I'm curious whether anyone thinks this is a better mechanism? It strikes
>>me that it might be better for someone who has never used the program
>>before, but much worse for any regular user, which suggests to me
>>that attracting new users is more financially important than pleasing
>>loyal old users.
>>
>>The embarassment about all this is that I was a Beta tester for 9.0, and
>>never thought to notice this latest innovation.
>>
>>So, I'm opening the floor for comments-- perhaps I'm merely a throwback
>>to an era in which there were modes of thought other than visual/iconic.
>>
>>
>
>No need to feel embarrassed. The Text Wizard wasn't in the beta. And if you
>find it simpler to type in column locations, you might find it simpler to
>simply avoid the dialog box interface entirely for reading your
fixed-format
>text files and go straight to a syntax window and type DATA LIST syntax.
>
| 
