Re: RGSG

[Tom Vogt <tom lemuria org>]

Dan Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
> Don't try to pull this exception out of nowhere :-)    Applications *do not*
> possess information.  *FILES* possess information.  If an application shows
> the user data, that's a file that exists in memory and is being continually
> updated.  If I can conceptualize it being saved into a file, it's a file.

from the perspectiv of a know-nothing user,  you  are talking voodoo up
there.
which  is the best reason I can think of to NOT  do it your way.


> Quitting an application is a means by which users say "I don't want to deal
> with this data anymore."
or "gotta go catch that train".

fact is,  when a user exits a program, he can have a dozen reasons, only
part of them to be found anywhere in  a file-centric pov.



> So Office would have a "Office" menu, LyX would have a "Document" menu, GIMP
> would have a "Graphics" menu, etc. etc. etc.
> 
> Kaminsky's Second Law, once again..."Everything that is consistent between
> applications should be consistently accessible between applications."

"accessible" is the keyword here. it doesn't say "consistently NAMED", does
it?
besides, arguing with "laws" one created oneself is not exactly very
convincing.:)
(vogt's third law: the leftmost menu shalt be called "Prog") :)


> Well, IBM's research said that users inevitably scan from left to right, but
> they didn't deal with icons so I can't really say.
> 
> I am *slightly* amenable to valid replacements for File, as long as they are
> consistent between applications.  However, I've really NOT yet seen anything
> that didn't just ask for "File" to be implied right after it, except for
> Main, and if that's not a catchall what is?

you've not been following. the original proposal, made more than two weeks
ago, was to put an ADDITIONAL menu in front of file, but KEEP file. I can't
remember that this proposal has changed in this point since then.


> I think alot about new users.  Keyboxs, screenplays, and self-documenting
> interfaces in general are *all* about new users.  A user should become an
> accidental expert.

you're thinking about them, but you're not thinking LIKE them.



-- 
The universe does not have laws -- it has habits, and habits can be broken.