On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 16:26 -0400, Curtis Hovey wrote: > On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 14:28 -0500, Shaun McCance wrote: > > ============================================================ > > cancel > > End an operation without leaving any side effects. Only use > > "cancel" if the operation can be ended cleanly, leaving the > > system in the same state as before the operation was started. > > Use "stop" instead if ending the operation will result in > > partial effects of the operation remaining. > > ============================================================ > > stop > > End an operation leaving some side effects. Use stop if the > > operation cannot be ended cleanly, or if ending the operation > > will leave it partially completed. Use "cancel" instead if > > the operation can be ended cleanly with no side effects. > > ============================================================ > > > > We don't currently have recommendations for these in the > > Style Guide, but this jives with the HIG's recommendation: > > > > http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/feedback-interrupting.html.en > > I think these two words are clear. The definition meet my expectations > of the consequences of their use. I suspect however that many users will > not know that 'stop' may leave something in an unwanted state. I don't > think a more technical word for 'stop' will help since that introduces > jargon problems. So I believe we need to educate users that 'stop' is > not a clean cessation of an activity.
The section of the HIG that deals with Stop buttons actually recommends popping up an alert warning you about the side effects. I think doing that everywhere would be annoying (thinking about stopping a download), but in places where the effects are particularly dangerous or annoying (partial file transfers, eg), the alert seems reasonable. Anyway, I agree with what you're saying, but the place to make recommendations to help users understand the terms is probably the HIG, not the Style Guide. -- Shaun _______________________________________________ gnome-doc-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list
