Function rich

More than forty years ago Microsoft invented the work processing product called Word. A successful package which has grown and grown over the years, with clever software engineers forever thinking of whizzy new features to add into the product. Which one might think a good thing, but one catch is that there is now a huge heritage of Word documents built using features introduced over the whole span of the product's life. Taking anything out is difficult because it is apt to stop those documents working, which is definitely a bad thing from the point of view of their owners and users. So the product is now huge, with far too many features for the average punter. From time to time, people think of building a cut down product which is a bit more average-user friendly, but somehow it never seems to catch on.

A similar disease afflicted microwave cookers, which got computing and kept on adding function after function. And buttons and knobs. Older users in particular found this tiresome and here there did seem to be room for a cut down product and the one that we use has just two knobs. One for power or temperature and one for the timer in minutes. The art student who designed it made a bit of a meal of it from the point of view of appearance, which he probably thought was pleasingly retro, but it is easy to use. He didn't mess that up. I suppose the difference is that tooling up to make a microwave is not hugely expensive: one does not have to sell that many for the numbers to add up.

Then yesterday, we had occasion to rent a car, a three year old VW T-ROC. Not as much luggage space as our own Ford C-Max, in dock with a leaking radiator, but comfortable, quiet and easy enough to drive. Except that the dashboard is awash with lights, dials, buttons and knobs. Very noisy visually - and I dare say that if you are not careful it will start talking to you or playing you music (of a sort). You are not expected to put your handbrake on in the ordinary way or to turn the lights on and off in the ordinary way. But the screen does tell you when you are in what it thinks is the wrong gear - easy enough when you have six of them. Automation rules!

One might have thought that there would be a market for a car without all this stuff, one that you  can just get in and drive without having to think about it or stop the car and get out the manual. Or ask YouTube on your telephone. Maybe when the dashboard becomes completely virtual, just a touch sensitive computer screen, they will include an oldie option and you will be able to go back to the car of your younger days at the flick of a switch. Or perhaps the tapping of an icon.

PS: what is old speak, is that if you want the Satnav to work, which I don't particularly, you have to feed it your plastic. That bit has not changed.