Scripsit Christian Perrier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > There used to be, somewhere, a guideline that told maintainers to let
> > themselves be inspired by the descriptions in the kernel source's
> > "make fooconfig", especially with regard to telling the user what the
> > conservative default choice is. Many of the kernel option descriptions
> > do indeed say "If unsure, answer No" or the like. Or do I misremember?
> > If I'm right, then the relation between those two pieces of advice
> > should probably be clarified.
> Let's see in further discussion. However, there are very strong
> arguments against this�:
Quite possibly. I'm not arguing either way - just proposing that if my
memory of the "make fooconfig" guideline is correct, a document such
as yours would be a good place to stress that is was not really a good
one. Of course I realise that it would help if I could remember
*where* I read that guideline. :-)
> > The extended description should be able to stand on its own,
> > *without* the short one. For example, the dialog frontend will
> > sometimes choose to show the entire extended description first and
> > only ask the actual question on a separate screen after the user has
> > confirmed reading the extended one. This depends on the terminal
> > size and the lenght of the extended description, so it may happen to
> > users even if it does not happen to you.
> Hmmm, this is a good point. Well, for string/select/multiselect, this
> shoul dnot happen as extended descriptions should always ablance
> between verbosity and quality.
Sometimes a long extended description *is* necessary to enable the
user to make an informed choice. FWIW, the case where I encountered
this behavior was a Boolean choice - I have not checked whether it is
specific to certain question types.
--
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