Date Presented

Spring 5-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Will Briggs, PhD

Second Advisor

Barry Lobb, PhD

Third Advisor

Nancy Cowden, PhD

Abstract

This thesis explores both deprecated and current Operating Systems to understand the changes of user interfaces. By comparing older and more flawed Operating Systems interfaces, I intend to demonstrate how user-friendliness has come to the forefront of OS design. However, by building more user-friendly interfaces, the functionality and power of the older designs, while often misused, has been lost. Systems design restricts user access to such functionality because it might damage the system. It is a sensible precaution for users unaware of the effects of certain actions. However, this thesis will argue that for trained and educated users of the system interface modern, user-friendly design limits what users could do with the system. The thesis also includes other examples besides Operating Systems interfaces; similar functionality restriction can be seen in programming languages. C++ required users to allocate their own memory and subsequently delete the allocated memory. If not, errors occurred resulting in bugs of the program. Modern languages like Java and C# have eliminated the necessity for users to manually allocate and delete memory, instead opting for having automatic memory handling. Similarly, C++ pointers were not maintained onto the later dot net (.NET) languages. Overall, this thesis will explore if these changes have been good for the users as well as the programmers. This thesis will attempt to explain why simply educating users about systems, instead of removing useful tools in fear of user error, will make technology better for everyone.

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