Re: irc summary

[Chris Jantzen <chris maybe net>]

Dan Kaminsky writes:
 > Well I was surprised by some of the stuff.  Never would have thought the
 > coder division would have been so distraught at the concept of standard
 > interfaces.  I thought pavlov was going to mutiny in there :-)

Don't estimate coder response from an IRC conference. Most coders I
know hate IRC with a passion. At any rate, the IRC conferences will
never truly capture the whole target audience. (We are talking World
Domination <tm> still, right?) Not that they (IRC conferences) are
wholly bad, or anything.

Speaking as a developer, and estimating what I think most level-headed 
developers I know would say: If there is not one inch for
customization in most areas of the Style Guide, that is fine by me. As 
programmers, we're supposed to be writing programs that do
something. Not conducting independent user interface style
research. When I write a network analysis tool, I want to get to the
meat of writing a network analysis tool fast. I don't want to spend
70% of development researching what decisions and choices I should
make about minor interface issues. Yes, I should spend time
researching effective interface overall, but issues as where to put
Options or Preferences or Quit or Exit should not concern me. At
all. I don't even care if the SG doesn't make any sense on these
issues. I'll follow it.

Allowing the user to change the appearance and presentation (themes,
etc) of my application, is fine, but not if I have to do any work to
allow it. GNU internationalization strikes me as an excellent example
of accomplishing this goal. If all I have to do is replace all
occurrences of "String" with _("String") then I'll be more than happy
to internationalize my programs. [In truth, even if it were a little
harder, I would do it, but I'm try to speak as a fairly general
programmer here.] If I can make library calls to create a standardized
appearance style tab in my Preferences notebook, sure, I'll do
it. This is why About dialogs in Gnome are already standardized:
they're dead simple.

If there is an existing body of applications that conform to a Style
Guide under Gnome, and the SG is easy to understand, then it will be
obvious to me what I should do. I agree with Tom and Dan that some
things should be laid down rigidly as "bugs" if not implemented. I
should see that all other applications implement these fundamental
features. I should see as a user that I expect my applications to
behave like that. X, as a desktop environment by itself, has long
suffered from a confusing lack of rigid standards. The Macintosh's
primary UI breakthrough was the establishment of rigid Style
Guidelines. Even, if it doesn't make sense, I can always (esp. in the
early days) go to File|Exit (or Command-Q) to quit a given
program. [Forgive minor memory errors, haven't used a Mac in a while.]
I'm not validating the File argument made here already, I'm just
saying find any standard and hold to it as the law.

As a developer, I want a Style Guide that is a resource I can go to to
answer my questions about UI style and conformance. I don't want
something telling me to do impossible things--I want something that is
my salvation, something that takes the burden out of UI
programming. I'm not saying that I don't want to be told what CORBA
interfaces I have to export. I have no problem with these, or other
one-time tedious things. But if, for example, I have to jump through
unholy hoops to implement event playback, then I won't do it. Period.

We have the opportunity to do something to change the world
here. Let's think beyond our petty differences and the merit of
current "gee-wiz" effects and look at the bigger picture: The Style
Guide needs to be a presentation to the Developer of what the User
expects. In good business, the Customer Is Always Right. In the World
Domination <tm> perspective, coding is *all* about pleasing the
Customer. I'm sure this steps on a lot toes in the nascent Linux
community [of which I've been a part for a number of years], but it is
a simple fact of life. If the Style Guide suffers because some coders
complain about loss of control, Gnome *will* suffer. A kite does not
soar to heights without being held to the ground.

I am sure that some of my statements here will cause some knee-jerk
reactions and flames, but I believe that I am speaking for a majority
of real world programmers here. Think carefully before replying (let
it sit for a few hours).

-- 
chris jantzen kb7rnl =-> 
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