Macintosh Workstations

COMPUTER INTERFACES AND THE ISSUE OF CONNECTIVITY. Of near mythic proportions, the interaction of humans with computers has always been treated with awe, mystery, and confusion, even in these days of desktop access to Crays. People process information quite differently from machines and the differences are both startling and complementary. Computers make up for the obvious human weaknesses of retaining, storing, and recalling large quantities of information accurately. Humans on the other hand process massive amounts of diverse data rapidly, thanks to a variety of sensitive input devices that have not found their counterparts on a computer. The interface between computers and humans, for decades, has favored machine processing with commands encoded in abbreviated scripts and abrupt codes. Only recently has there been a move to use more humane means of access to automation with the introduction of symbols in the form of icons and objects displayed on a conventional CRT. How has this change in machine interfacing affected the overall implementation of computer technology? Where is this iconographic explosion leading end users?