Lan Barnes wrote: > On Thu, March 27, 2008 4:43 pm, David Brown wrote: >> On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 04:05:34PM -0700, Lan Barnes wrote: >> >>> I completely disagree. Successful progress should be silent. If >>> reassurance is necessary, a -v or -h (as in "print hash marks") can be >>> added. >> It's fine that you disagree, but not very significant. A vast majority of >> users want/need progress. User interface guidelines require it. > > Whose interface guidelines, we ask. >
It's not at all hard to find guidelines to quote. Here's one, I think: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-progind/index.html?dwzone=usability But the real answer is "it depends" (of course). HCI requirements depend on the human, the computer, the purpose and various details of the interface, and --no doubt-- plenty of additional considerations. Some guidelines deal with situations where it is considered a defect if results do not occur "immediately". Guidelines _for such cases_ always say something like: if results are not expected (within the current definition of) "instantly" then give <the kinds of feedback discussed above>. I suspect it's even hopeless to define a single set of HCI requirements that apply even to the UNIX command line environment. It differs for the operation (date .. fsck .. dvdrecord), the user (-q -v options helpful here!), etc. So what? Well, I think if program Z doesn't meet your particular HCI requirements, you should look for another program, or a way to adapt (maybe a wrapper). It's probably a waste of time to argue (much) about the choice of HCI requirements that program Z seems to target. Regards, ..jim -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
