On Mon, 2002-04-29 at 06:27, Jesper Skov wrote: > > 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?
xchat has been frequently pointed out as a paradigmatic example. I can't understand why. I always find quite easily what I want in xchat. > The many options in many different windows makes it almost impossible to > find a particular option. That's called dumbifying, but I agree that more advanced options could be displayed only in a "higher" level of user experience. > No, I'd prefer a text file any day, coz I can *search* in it. I could live with that IF all options where clearly visible in the text file. I have no problem with apache's configuration, but still it misses a lot of examples in there. My problem is with hidden features that can only be accessible either by a registry a-like (that suffers the same too much garbage problem, but in an even worse condition than preferences dialogs). > 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. Now we're talking business :) This is a lot more sane than what has been done in GNOME2, in a general way. > 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. Tables (2xn or nx2 depending on how you look at it :) )? As for the settings column, well, it just has to have different containers. I do agree with your proposal Jesper. Hugs, rms -- + No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown + Whatever you do will be insignificant, | but it is very important that you do it -- Ghandi + So let's do it...?
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