Re: Review of Keybindings [Re: Dia's user interface]

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, James K. Lowden wrote:
>> is Search/Find really a function that Dia is likely to add at a later
>> state?
> 
> If Dia gets good at managing 100+ objects, find-by-name will become
> necessary.  

The objects don't really have a name (apart from their type) right now.
Obviously, a Class has a name, as does some other things.  Yeah, it's an
option to keep open.

> Lars, FWIW, please add one No vote on the start-up hints.  Thanks to you,
> I read Joel's book tonight, which doesn't contain anything earthshaking,
> but is funny and pithy.  One of his themes is that users want to *do*
> something, and software that interrupts the doing to spout off about the
> how-to-do is just in the way.  (His critique of the Windows help file(s)
> sizing dialog is wonderful.)  
> 
> When I start a program, the last thing I want is hints about how to do
> something I'm not thinking about.  It's self-important.  I want to open
> my file or plop a few shapes onto a new one, thanks.  If I want to read
> the docs, I'll do that.  If I have to read the docs, the UI failed.

The only thing I *really* want to see in the start-up hints is mention of
the right and middle mouse menus.  I've seen reviews of Gimp complaining
about how little you could do because the reviewer never figured out the
right mouse menus.  Can you think of a better way to indicate this?  Though
perhaps the use in Windows of right mouse menus has made this concept
well-known enough.

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?