Re: Hearts considered?

[Sander Marechal <s marechal jejik com>]

Alan Horkan wrote:
> I could probably contrive a suitable example from the HIG but it tries to
> show how best to do things rather than how not to do it.  This is a more
> general thing, have you ever seen an application which offered the choices
> ( ) Yes ( ) No, in a radio list?
>
> You might notice how Gnome tries to use actions/verbs on button labels,
> which in many cases can save you from needing to read the dialog at all.
> [Cancel] [Discard] [Save]
>
> (Now lets see if I can remember this precisely...) Recently a developer
> pointed out how if you label your checkboxes carefully it makes
> documentation easier,
>
> [ ] Shoot the messsenger
> [ ] Show the status bar
> [ ] Hide the contraband
>
> Notice how the labels are positive, the checkboxes are set true
> or false as needed.

I see. So plain checkboxes would be better for these preferences settings.

> > Hearts is my first free software project (actually, the first Linux app
> > I try my hand of after a few years of Win32 coding) and I haven't been
> > able to wrestle myself through all the thousands of pages of
> > documentation on various topics scattered around the net :-)
>
> All the important bits should be on developer.gnome.org and parts are
> repeated on gtk.org but I have trouble keeping track of it all too.
> Reading straight through the documentation end to end isn't fun but if you
> do have any doubts about how best to arrange something it can be well
> worth dipping into the relevant section of the HIG as needed.  Best to try
> and learn a little as you go along, and try to use what you have seen in
> other programs you like using as an example.

I find developer.gnome.org lacking in certain parts. It's a great 
resource if you're already know Gnu/Linux development but I started from 
scratch having only experience with Win32 Visual C++ coding. The biggest 
problem I had with documentation (in general, not just Gnome) are old 
versions recommending already outdated techniques. In the end I usually 
ended up browsing the Gnome CVS and looking what other (new) 
applications are doing.

> More fun than any guidelines is the Interface Hall of shame:
> http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/shame.htm

Ha, that's a great link :-D