From: Rui Miguel Silva Seabra (rms@1407.org)
Date: Mon Apr 29 2002 - 06:01:29 EDT
On Mon, 2002-04-29 at 06:27, Jesper Skov wrote:
> > Havoc's argument has many flaws, most of which are based on the
> > assumption that all users are dumb. When he says must, he means 99%
> > which is, in practice, all.
> [snip]
> > Even though you're an 3133t hax0r, you're naturally lazy.
> > If you can have all your options in the same dialog, set or not set,
> > you'll find faster what you need than if you have to read (INSERT LOADS
> > OF DOCS) just to find that teensy option (if it even exists at all).
>
> I don't consider myself dumb, but I do find that too many options is
> more of a problem than it is a help.
> Have you ever tried looking for an option in xchat?
xchat has been frequently pointed out as a paradigmatic example.
I can't understand why. I always find quite easily what I want in xchat.
> The many options in many different windows makes it almost impossible to
> find a particular option.
That's called dumbifying, but I agree that more advanced options could
be displayed only in a "higher" level of user experience.
> No, I'd prefer a text file any day, coz I can *search* in it.
I could live with that IF all options where clearly visible in the text
file.
I have no problem with apache's configuration, but still it misses a lot
of examples in there. My problem is with hidden features that can only
be accessible either by a registry a-like (that suffers the same too
much garbage problem, but in an even worse condition than preferences
dialogs).
> However, there's no law against new ways of doing things. So I'd
> suggest, in addition to the existing pref tabs, we get one that's called
> "raw options", "advanced", or something like that, containing *all*
> options.
> It should *not* include buttons, check boxes, fields and whatnot laid
> out in the normal (and very space consuming way). It should contain a
> list with two columns:
> option name setting
> the setting column should be able to hold check boxes, fields and
> whatever necessary. It should also allow searching.
> The option name column should have tooltips describing the action of the
> individual option.
> And the list should be searchable, and sortable on both option name and
> setting.
Now we're talking business :) This is a lot more sane than what has been
done in GNOME2, in a general way.
> This has several advantages that I can see:
> o options collected in one place
> o options available in AbiWord, not just the config file
> o doesn't take up gazillions of preference tabs on acount
> of needing fancy&bloaty layout.
> o doesn't need development time to make said layout
> o allows quick overview of what options are enabled/disabled
> o allows searching for options
> The only disadvantage I can think of is that there's probably no
> existing widget that does all this for us. So it has to be programmed.
> But then, it only has to be programmed once.
Tables (2xn or nx2 depending on how you look at it :) )?
As for the settings column, well, it just has to have different
containers.
I do agree with your proposal Jesper.
Hugs, rms
-- + No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown + Whatever you do will be insignificant, | but it is very important that you do it -- Ghandi + So let's do it...?
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