On My Side

... A SoftwareUsability metric--how much is it OnMySide, as opposed to InMyWay? Software which is OnMySide a simple, coherent feature set that is directly related to the job at hand, and has a simple interface for accessing said features. Examples of OnMySide software are ProjectBuilder, TextEdit, CocoaBrowser, SafariBrowser, and tools such as wc and grep.

There are parallels between OnMySide software and well-designed objects or subsystems.

-- JoeOsborn

Of course, this is subjective. For a long time I've said that "emacs is my friend", but many just don't want to learn about it. -- AnonymousDonor

Software that's OnMySide is usually that which is "transparent" or "invisible". That is, it just lets me get on with the task at hand. I don't have to devote mental effort on obscure conceptual models inherent in the system design, or waste time moving the mouse to places it should never need to go to. I merely have to worry about the letter I'm writing, the code I'm cutting, or the data I'm exploring. -- MichaelMahemoff