Re: [dev] Article: Usability of Open Source Software
On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 16:43 +0100, Andreas Bartel wrote: Hello members, here is a link to a well elaborated article about usability in open source software. Good article. However, before we go off and try to improve an application with user interface engineering, we should first properly document the existing application via a manual that anyone can read. Thats user interface engineering also, in a fashion, is user interface engineering intended for the brain Much of what's available now has little or no documentation worth reading. It's left to experienced end users to figure it out on their own. I've written software professionally for 30 years, and I can figure it out on my own in most instances, but most end users can't. They need a well written users manual that provides enough detail to answer most questions. I'd like one too, so I wouldn't have to waste my time figuring it out. The help system and documentation for Open Office is a prime example of having a fairly good application with lousy documentation. If you want to know how any function really works you have to write test code and figure it out yourself. The documentation is too vague, and lacks real world examples. Even the books written about programming for Open Office approach the subject matter from an altitude of 30,000 feet. OpenOffice.org Macros Explained is a case in point. I bought it and its an OK book as far as it goes, but that book should be part of the documentation for the application, not an add on after the fact. It also doesn't cover the subject matter well enough to allow me to say its a GOOD reference, its mediocre at best. User interface design is something to be looked at, but first lets have the people that know the application best, the developers, also produce some documentation for it that goes more than skin deep. -- Bill Gradwohl - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.org
Re: [dev] Rudimentary understanding issue
On Thu, 2007-04-19 at 14:49 +0200, Jan Navratil wrote: IIRC this return a currently active document. So, it is supposed Calc to be open. I'm experimenting with the API via Basic using a calc sheets macro ability to call the routines. When doc is initialized, what object exactly is it associated with? Is it a com.sun.star. (document or container or sheet or ...) what? document If I initialize an object to StarDesktop and then use DBG_Methods on it, it shows that I have a StarDesktop object as expected. If I then initialize another object with StarDesktop.currentComponent within a spreadsheet document and use DBG_Methods on it, it shows I have something called ScModelObj. Very confusing since a search of the API can't find any reference to that thing. What I'm trying to do is get a map of the API set that shows ALL the methods, properties, etc and how they interconnect. This started when I went looking for the object called Sheets as in document.Sheets, and DBG_Methods does indeed reveal that Sheets is a part of document, but the API docs never show it. How is one supposed to use the docs to know that a thing called Sheets exists? I'm getting in a few books from Amazon to try to answer these questions, but I was hoping the doc at openoffice.org would at least have a complete set of specs for the API, and that doesn't appear to be the case or I'm too ignorant to figure it out. -- Bill Gradwohl - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[dev] Rudimentary understanding issue
I've seen several subroutine examples that all contain the same sequence of opening executable statements when working with a spreadsheet, as does the following example: sub dumpSheets Dim doc as object Dim Sheets As Object Dim SheetNames Dim I As Integer ' Executable statements follow: doc=StarDesktop.CurrentComponent Sheets = doc.Sheets SheetNames = Sheets.getElementNames For I=LBound(SheetNames) To UBound(SheetNames) MsgBox SheetNames(I) Next I end sub When doc is initialized, what object exactly is it associated with? Is it a com.sun.star. (document or container or sheet or ...) what? For the life of me, I can't find the thing called Sheets as in doc.Sheets, anywhere in the API, so I can't understand how the initialization of Sheets = doc.Sheets works. How am I supposed to know that something called Sheets exists? Where is this documented in the API? I've spent hours trying to go thru the API at http://api.openoffice.org/docs/common/ref/com/sun/star/module-ix.html and can't seem to get my brain around how to find something as rudimentary as the doc.Sheets item. Any help would be appreciated. -- Bill Gradwohl - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
