1、The Evolving Art of Simplicity 新型软件让人们生活更简单Why do they make software so complicated, when it was software that was supposed to make our lives easier? Take Microsoft Word, for example. We all use it. But do we have any idea what most of the programs buttons and menu items actually do?软件原本是为了让我们的生活变得更
2、加简单的，可是为什么他们开发的软件这么复杂呢？就拿 Microsoft Word 来说，我们都在用它，但是我们知道这个软件中大部分的按钮和菜单选项实际上是做什么的吗？I had a slow morning recently, so I started counting the number of functions in the latest edition of Microsoft Word. In default mode, there are nine columns of menus, each with between 10 and 27 submenu items. Thats
3、between 90 and 243 functions, or almost one function for every day of the year. And then there are all the little dialog boxes and pull-down lists you can tick, untick or whatever: I counted more than 150 different tick boxes in the Options tab alone. Does anyone have any idea what all these little
4、buttons do, and, more importantly, how they should be used. Ive been using Microsoft Word for more than 15 years and I still dont know. And those I do know about, Ive never completely mastered. Stylesheets leave me baffled. I still cant quite grasp the tracking changes function.这几天的上午都比较清闲，我开始计算最新版
5、Microsoft Word 的各种功能。在默认状态下，这个软件有 9 大类菜单，每类下面有 10 到 27 个子菜单。然后，它有 90 到 243 项功能，相当于一年中几乎每天都可以使用一项功能。而且，所有对话框和下拉菜单你都可以打勾选择或者不选：我统计共有 150 多个可以打勾的“ 选项”栏。难道所有的人都知道这些小按钮是干什么的，而且更重要的是它们应该怎么使用吗？我使用 Microsoft Word 已经超过15 年了，可是还是一知半解。而且，那些我的确知道的功能，我从没有完全掌握过。Stylesheets 让我迷惑不已，而且我也不太清楚怎样使用追踪修改功能。这在业内被称之为功能过剩。但
6、是，有解决的办法吗？ This is known in the industry as “feature bloat.“ But is there a cure? Sort of. There is a growing movement away from big programs in favor of smaller ones - users dont want a lot of features in a program. These applications - called “Web apps“ - are usually stored on the Internet and acc
7、essed via a Web browser, rather than saved on the users own computer. Because accessing software over the Internet is going to be slower than accessing something on your own computer, these programs are by necessity smaller and simpler. I think of it as software getting out of the way of the user.应该
8、有的。越来越多的用户开始放弃大型程序软件，转向更小一些的软件他们不希望程序中夹杂太多功能。这些名为 Web apps 的小软件通常存储在互联网上，通过网络浏览器就可以获得，而无需存储在用户自己的电脑上。因为通过互联网获取软件比在自己的电脑上打开速度要慢一些，这些软件都尽可能地小而简单。我想它们正在让用户渐渐摆脱操作时的烦恼。INSIDE TECHSee complete coverage of Asias technology sector, from cellphones to software.Consider this column, for instance. Im writing i
9、t in a browser on a Web site called Writely (). The page actually looks a bit like Microsoft Word, and it feels like Microsoft Word. There are some pull-down menus to change the font and size of the letters, as well as bold, italic and underline buttons - the usual basic editing palaver. But not muc
10、h else. No complex menus, no endless rows of indecipherable buttons. In fact, little to get in the way of writing this piece. And the file itself is stored on the Web site rather than in my computer, meaning I could easily finish it more or less anywhere I happened to have access to a computer. Oh,
11、and its free.以本文的写作为例。我在一个名为 Writely()网站的浏览器上撰写文章。它的页面实际上看起来有点像 Microsoft Word，有起来感觉也有些相似。使用一些下拉菜单可以调整字体和字型、黑体、斜体和下划线这些编辑文章时常用的基本工具。但是，除此之外就没有什么了。没有复杂的菜单，也没有无休止的难以辨认的按钮。实际上，在写文章时几乎不会遇到什么障碍。另外，这份文档是存储在网站而不是我的电脑里，也就是说我可以随时随地完成它，只要我手边有一台电脑就行。而且，这是免费的。Working TogetherTheres another aspect at work here.
12、Because these programs are Internet-based, they are great for collaboration. Usually “collaboration“ doesnt mean much more than editing a Word document, emailing it to a colleague who then changes stuff, adds stuff, deletes stuff and introduces a few more errors before sending it back. Sure, Word wi
13、ll let you track those changes, but that function is ugly, slow and often more than you need. Writely isnt only simpler, but it lets you collaborate with other users at the same time: A little message in the bottom of the browser will alert you when someone else is editing the document you are worki
14、ng on, and your changes will be synced with theirs in real time.还有另一方面的优点。因为这些程序是存在互联网上的，所以能够互通。通常，这种互通并不比编辑一个 Word 文档复杂：把它用电子邮件发给一位同事，这位同事对文章进行修改、增加或删节部分内容，或许会加入更多的错误， 然后再给你发回来。当然，Word 能够让你追踪这些变化，但是这项功能设计很差，运行缓慢而且常常做些你不需要的无用功。Writely 不仅仅简单，而且可以让你与其他用户同时互通：如果其他人正在编辑你所写的文档，在浏览器下方的小讯息框会提示你，而且文章的内容将和他们
15、的同步更新。You might think that a Web-based application would be clumsy and slow. What helps these applications work is a newfound technique for making Web pages work faster. Sometimes called Ajax, this technique is really a bundle of existing technologies that, simply put, speeds up the interaction betw
16、een your browser and the computer that the Web page (or application) is sitting on. Usually when you click on a link in a Web page, that instruction goes back to the host computer, which in turn refreshes the whole page. That can take a while, and is especially annoying if only part of the Web page
17、comes back updated. Ajax (and similar approaches that arent, strictly speaking, techniques that fall under the Ajax umbrella) either sends back instructions to update only that part of the page that needs it, or else handles the instruction on your computer. The result: Your browser starts respondin
18、g as efficiently and quickly as a program sitting on your computer.你或许以为建立在互联网上的应用软件运行起来会笨重而缓慢，帮助这些软件工作的是一种可以使网页运行更快的新型技术。这种技术有时被称为 Ajax，实际上是现有技术打包而成，能够加快你的浏览器与网页所在电脑之间的互动。通常当你在一个网页上打开某个链接时，这一指令会发回到网页所在的主机上，进而刷新整个页面。这可能要等上一会儿功夫，如果最后只是部分网页得到更新，那就特别令人恼火。Ajax（及严格来讲不能归入Ajax 旗下技术的方法) 可以发回指示，只更新那部分还没有更新的页
19、面，或者在你的电脑上处理这项指示。结果是：你的浏览器开始和你电脑中安装的程序一样迅速有效地运行起来。Enough mechanics. The bottom line here is that a lot of people are building more simple, task-focused applications that make use of these new approaches without bogging it down with new features. A new player on the block this month: Writeboard, whic
20、h allows individuals and groups to edit a piece of text online, all the while seeing what has been removed, edited or otherwise changed from previous versions. Once again, this is possible with Microsoft Word, but Ive never really figured out how to do it, whereas with Writeboard () I figured it out
21、 in a couple of seconds.说了足够多的工作原理了。关键在于许多人正在开发这种更简单、任务针对性强的应用软件，能够使大家在使用这些新方法的同时而又不会被新功能所困扰。本月这类软件家族中又添了一个新成员：Writeboard，它可以允许个人和团体同时在网上编辑一个文本，且一直都能看到内容的删节、编辑或者较先前版本的改变。又得提一下，Microsoft Word 也有这项功能，但是我从来没有真正学会怎样用它，而对于 Writeboard()，我用几秒钟就学会了。Minor QuibblesNow, it isnt that the guys writing these simp
22、ler programs couldnt add more features. They are just following a different approach to their forebears. Whereas in the past, software would be developed in secret and then released in its entirety on a gasping and impressed world, a lot of software developers prefer to release a basic working model
23、 and then add features depending on how customers use the application and what extra bits they request. While this sounds like the tired old story of companies releasing products before they are ready, it isnt like that. For a start, these Web applications are simple, so the chances of big bugs are
24、small. Secondly, because the application is stored on the companys own server, the software itself can be fixed quickly and easily. No patches and updates that need to be downloaded.并不是说，这些设计更简单程序的人就不会在里面增加更多功能，他们只不过是采取了和他们的前辈不同的策略。在过去，软件在秘密开发出来之后全面推向市场，让人们大吃一惊。许多软件开发商喜欢先发行一个基本的操作系统，然后再根据客户的使用习惯和要求加
25、入新的功能。虽然这听起来像是说公司在产品没有完全做好之前就卖出去，但情形不是这样的。首先，这些网络应用软件是简单的，因此里面存在重大缺陷的可能性很小。其次，因为这些软件是存在公司自己的伺服器上，软件本身能够迅速、轻松地修复，不需要下载补丁和最新版本的软件。Downsides? Not everyone has a reliable Internet connection, meaning sometimes you mightnt be able to access the application you need or, if your files are not stored on you
26、r own computer, your data. And while some services say they take snapshots of your data, if your Internet connection goes down half way through editing a document, the risks are higher that youll lose stuff. There are also privacy issues: The Web pages your collaborations are stored on are password
27、protected but of course they are vulnerable to a skillful and malicious hacker or someone who really, really wants to know what you are doing. Then again, thats true of pretty much anything you do online. And a minor quibble: Ive noticed that typing a document into, say, Writely, inserts different a
28、postrophes to the ones that I (and, more importantly, my editors) use. But these are minor quibbles and are eclipsed by the benefits of being able to do what you need without lots of fuss, digging around in menus, or expensive software. Computers, helped along by the Internet, may yet make our lives
29、 easier.那么，缺点是什么呢？并不是每个人的网络连接都那么稳固，有的时候可能没有办法获得你需要的应用软件或你的数据（如果你的文件不存在自己的电脑里） 。虽然一些服务商称它们保存了你的数据，但如果你的网络连接在文章编辑过程中突然断开，你的文章内容丢失的风险还是要高一些。另外，还有一个隐私权的问题：存储你的文件的网页是有密码保护的，但也很容易受到不法黑客或者很想获取你所做内容的某些人的侵袭。诚然，你在网上做任何事情都会遇到这种风险。此外，这些软件还有一个小小的缺陷：我注意到，我在Writely 输入文字时，我（而且更重要的是，我的编辑）共享的内容中会出现不同的乱码。但这都是些细枝末节，和它能够提供你所需要的功能，不必在菜单或价格高昂的大型软件中翻查的好处相比简直是微不足道。在互联网的帮助下，电脑也许终有一天会让我们的生活变得更加简单。
