Originally Posted by
bigpics 
Those of you who started on Apple (pre- or post-Mac), especially those who didn't come over from Win and haven't used it much, likely think
your interface is more intuitive and less quirk-ridden than it really is in some small ways, especially when you're trying to attract the rest of the world to join you.
And I believe some of this may go back not only to OS 9 but even to the Apple II.
Speaking as a previous and current Win user and proud owner of an old iBook (which will be replaced either when Lion comes out or at the next MBP rev), I'm betting the
"Klingon symbols" for the CMD, Option (or is it Control) and Shift keys - which aren't on the keys, except for CMD, and which there's no simple way to type ON a Mac (that I've found in 7 years, tho' I haven't looked lately) - i.e., the ones which are used in the menus to indicate the short cuts - are still there in Lion. After all, the base has been using 'em for a long time.
However, they're totally non-intuitive for new (and even many long-time) users (whereas Windows' file menu short-cuts are totally clear first pass through). Does this go back to OS9 or to the A-II? Whatever, I still wish they'd simplify it already!! (I'll blush if this happened a few years ago and I don't know it, but whatever....)
I memorize a lot of technical things, but because at least that one symbol looks like nothing, has no name or sound, etc., I still haven't
fully memorized 'em after all this time.... ...I mean, I got the infinity/cloverleaf and Shift didn't take long - but when that other common one comes up I still don't know if it's Option or Control, tho' I guess my hands kinda do.
And on my
keycaps, I still don't know what the little "
alt" above "option" means (you'd think it involved the fn key on a notebook), nor why there's an extra little
enter key to the right of the space bar and how it's different than the return key, nor what the little "enter" on the return key means (another fn-key like thing or in both cases just telling Win users what it's equivalent to?).
Also it was
two years before someone taught me I could
delete forward instead of only to the left by invoking fn-Delete! Which had always frustrated the hell out of me. Much prefer the separate delete and backspace keys 90+% of the world uses. Not to mention Apple going it alone on
calling backspacing deleting. I'm guessing this convention was another bone to the base when Apple decided to ditch the past and go with the NeXtStep code.
And on Tiger and my apps at least, there's a lot of inconsistency on what the
Nav/cursor key combos do when paired with the controller keys (CMD, etc.) between apps. Windows seems much more consistent on this, e.g., getting to the end of a line or a doc or to the beginnings of same.
Apple faced a set of major decisions when it went to OS X. I believe they'd have gained market share at a slightly incrementally faster rate had they adopted the rest of the world's keyboard conventions at that time (keeping Command, but adopting the more common use of
Ctrl and Alt for Option and Control - again something else Win
switchers have to UN-learn as well as RE-learn), as they still would've kept their base (after a round of hissy fits) AND made life easier for switchers.
Even if they'd
moved the window buttons to the right side - another place I have muscle memory issues moving back and forth between Macs and Win PCs - the true belivers (who were about all were left) would've gotten used to it and switching would be that much simpler today.
But this is probably academic as this historical legacy is likely set in stone (and I don't mean Rosetta) until we evolve away from these interface elements altogether over time.
