On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Elia J. Freedman wrote:
> This is great. I love causing explosions on the forum. It is nice to see
> people get revved up about stuff. To answer your question, Matt, the
> Graffiti strokes are the same as onscreen or menu functions already existing
> in the app. It's one of those things: users want to enter via Graffiti.
> Why, I don't know. Tapping onscreen buttons is much easier and faster.
<Complaint number=147>
It's really annoying that the Keyboard _still_ won't accept Graffiti.
There are an _awful_ lot of buttons in that dialog, and I might really
want to tap and scribble at the same time. There's no possible reason
Graffiti _shouldn't_ be accepted, unless the lack of a good place to put
the shift indicator is holding them up...
</Complaint>
> As for exceptions, I have been told that the exception rules are being
> cracked down on, and what qualified as an exception for my 1.0 version won't
> necessarily work for my 2.0 version. Furthermore, the excuse "the built in
> app xxxx doesn't do it" is no longer a good enough reason to get an
> exception. So using the calc app as an example won't work (it didn't work
> in version 1.0 either for that matter).
<shrug> If the app is truly cool, _and_ your mother can figure out how to
operate it (always a good test, though the next generation won't have it
so easy.) I'd suggest you suggest that they reconsider. If they won't,
maybe they'll accept a note from Dr. Norman -- or your mother, for that
matter.
Just my opinion, of course. I realize that Platinum can be important for
your bottom line -- if necessary, I suppose you could try explaining that
Platinum third-party software is necessary for _their_ bottom line (given
the way things are set up currently), and if they are going to fail the
lot (without offering any sort of useful solution), it doesn't help
anyone.
> Since we are using the calc example, lets continue that. In the calc, you
> can enter a period for a decimal point or you can enter 'c' or 'C' to clear.
> I need to show the dot indicator for the decimal point, but there is no
> reason to show the capital letter indicator, since both 'c' and 'C' do the
> same thing. I hope that clarifies. At this point, I think having a capital
> letter indicator showing is worthless and therefore shouldn't show. As
> Steve said, it is a user interface thing. I see it the same way as having a
> menu item that doesn't do anything.
I understand with the clarification, but I disagree with your two
statements. The capital letter indicator does not do nothing, it genuinely
and reliably indicates the current state (upper-case engaged), making it
different from a no-op menu entry. (Which would be a poor jape on the
user, I agree.) In addition, the indicator is not worthless, because it
maintains the continuity of the UI: when a shift indicator is present, it
will indicate when upper-case is engaged, _and_, whenever Graffiti may be
used, upper-case entry is possible.
The fact that upper case is useless is irrelevant. To me this feels like
desiring to remove the numeric side of the Graffiti box because numbers
"aren't relevant". One important goal of the UI is consistency. (I'll note
here that, much like the Newton, the PalmOS UI doesn't seem to make much
use of blocking metaphors.)
(I'll contradict myself here by saying I actually _would_ like to be able
to play with the Graffiti box a bit. If the app _only_ needs numbers, I'd
enjoy being able to use the entire box for numeric entry. Likewise if
digits are verboten. This can of course be extended to writing Graffiti
anywhere on the screen in a particular app, if it wouldn't conflict with
the UI. Etc. But I won't actually ask for any of this, because it wouldn't
lead to consistency, and would almost certainly be dreadfully confusing.
It seems to be another variation on modality, in fact, and we all remember
how bad _that_ was.)
> Elia
--
Kenneth Albanowski ([EMAIL PROTECTED], CIS: 70705,126)
