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But the problem is - those easy-to-use products are few
and far between.  Certainly we all want them to be
thick on the ground - but they aren't!
And the kind of software users need
for anything beyond the equivalent of "See Spot run"
does indeed require handholding.  There is a substantial
difference between Street Atlas and, say, Arc/Info (or
even ArcView) and such image-processing software as ERDAS.
Yes, it's getting easier to use (sloooowly), but the
fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the
users of spatial-data collections have a relatively
low computer-literacy ability, or if they do, it stops
abruptly at just past word-processing software.
Mary L. Larsgaard, UCSB