Re: [linux-audio-user] Opening up the discussion

From: <james@email-addr-hidden-dot-dat.net>
Date: Mon Jul 25 2005 - 23:11:30 EEST

Sorry - I'm replying to two people at once here, but I'm too lazy to
go into my other mailbox.

On Mon, 25 Jul, 2005 at 12:47PM -0700, eviltwin69@email-addr-hidden spake thus:
>
>
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:34 , Lee Revell <rlrevell@email-addr-hidden-job.com> sent:
>
> >On Mon, 2005-07-25 at 10:46 +0200, Mario Lang wrote:
> >> That is the point, I absolutely dont feel reading up on something
> >> is necessarily a bad thing. My hair stand up if I watch
> >> a typical no-clue windows user more or less randomly hitting
> >> buttons in the interface until "something" works. I do feel this
> >> "it has to work out of the box without me having to know anything
> >> about it" attitude is childish.
> >>
> >
> >I disagree violently with this line of reasoning. Software should
> >ALWAYS work the way the user expects it to unless there is a DAMN GOOD
> >REASON, for example if you are offering a much more powerful interface
> >than the user is used to.

That's not quite what he meant, I think. You're just assuming prior
knowledge, which is different to knowing nothing. Users shouldn't
feel like they don't ever have to learn anything, but that doesn't
mean that what they learn isn't transferable.

> >For example, most apps (Firefox and IE) use "Ctrl-F" to 'Find in page'.
> >Except Evolution, which forces you to use "Ctrl-S" to 'Find (Search) in
> >page', because they have already bound Ctrl-F to 'Forward message'.

But C-F is forward one character, surely!
 
> Ah, but Ctrl-S has been search in all versions of Emacs for the last couple
> of decades. I think that predates IE and Firefox. They must not have felt like
> doing it in the normal way ;-) And you don't need to point out that Emacs isn't
> a browser since Evolution isn't one either.

I write my email in emacs. You can browse the web with it too, if you
like. Personally, I've never wanted to, but who am I to tell people
what Emacs shouldn't do?

So, yes. C-S isn't silly at all. It makes perfect sense to the
people most likely to use evolution.

> >
> >This is a MAJOR usability bug; "We didn't feel like doing it the normal
> >way" is NEVER a "good reason" for usability purposes.
> >
> >Lee
> Jan
>
>
>
>

-- 
"I'd crawl over an acre of 'Visual This++' and 'Integrated Development
That' to get to gcc, Emacs, and gdb.  Thank you."
(By Vance Petree, Virginia Power)
Received on Tue Jul 26 00:15:20 2005

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