The interactive bandwagon

The title for this section of my web site came to me some time ago, when "interactive" software was all the rage. It didn't matter whether a program was suited to it or not; if it was "interactive" it had to be good.

Non-interactive, or batch, programs were considered "user-unfriendly", and, as a result, many programs became time-consuming question-and-answer sessions when a simple command would have sufficed.

Once, while arguing the relative merits of batch and interactive software, I used the analogy of an automatic dishwasher (batch mode) and a kitchen sink (interactive mode).

How, I asked, do you prefer to wash your dishes?

interactive.html: last modified Saturday, 12 Jan 2002