--- Jesper Skov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, 2002-04-29 at 00:45, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra > wrote: > > On Sun, 2002-04-28 at 18:58, Alan Horkan wrote: > > > > This is pretty cool; for now I've hardcoded > the increment as being 10%. > > > > Maybe that should be a pref. > > > Did you read Havoc Penningtons recent usability > essay, "too many > > > preferences". > > > > http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/21/051228&mode=nested > > > > Havoc's argument has many flaws, most of which are > based on the > > assumption that all users are dumb. When he says > must, he means 99% > > which is, in practice, all. > [snip] > > Even though you're an 3133t hax0r, you're > naturally lazy. > > If you can have all your options in the same > dialog, set or not set, > > you'll find faster what you need than if you have > to read (INSERT LOADS > > OF DOCS) just to find that teensy option (if it > even exists at all). > > I don't consider myself dumb, but I do find that too > many options is > more of a problem than it is a help. > > Have you ever tried looking for an option in xchat? > > The many options in many different windows makes it > almost impossible to > find a particular option. > > No, I'd prefer a text file any day, coz I can > *search* in it. > > > However, there's no law against new ways of doing > things. So I'd > suggest, in addition to the existing pref tabs, we > get one that's called > "raw options", "advanced", or something like that, > containing *all* > options. > > It should *not* include buttons, check boxes, fields > and whatnot laid > out in the normal (and very space consuming way). It > should contain a > list with two columns: > > option name setting > > the setting column should be able to hold check > boxes, fields and > whatever necessary. It should also allow searching. > > The option name column should have tooltips > describing the action of the > individual option. > > And the list should be searchable, and sortable on > both option name and > setting. > > This has several advantages that I can see: > > o options collected in one place > o options available in AbiWord, not just the config > file > o doesn't take up gazillions of preference tabs on > acount > of needing fancy&bloaty layout. > o doesn't need development time to make said layout > o allows quick overview of what options are > enabled/disabled > o allows searching for options > > The only disadvantage I can think of is that there's > probably no > existing widget that does all this for us. So it has > to be programmed. > But then, it only has to be programmed once.
(For each platform). I have to say that I *love* lots of preferences and I'm usually strongly in favour of a) "Just Work", b) Provide a few obvious settings in an easy-to-find place c) Provide lots of other settings somewhere that only geeks, wizards, gurus, and those told how to fix a problem by a geek, wizard, or guru need know about. I liked the way Pine did this, the JavaScript prefs files for Mozilla, and the MSIE "Internet Options/ Advanced". I really don't mind how we go about it as long as we don't lose flexibility. Andrew Dunbar. > Jesper > ===== http://linguaphile.sourceforge.net http://www.abisource.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com
