Re: Apply, Close... (Re: gnome-stock pixmaps)

[Bruce Dodson <brucedodson rocketmail com>]

> >Close button unlit until either Apply or Undo is
hit marries nicely with it:

This is bad.  Reason: Beginning users can get stuck
with a dialog on the screen that they don't know how
to get rid of.  Advanced users will be annoyed that a
completely reasonable action (Close without Applying)
is unavailable.  Close should always be lit.


> Convention != Right
> Law != Justice

Interesting choice of words.  Scientifically
speaking, a law is an apparent universal truth, a
theory that is proven by experiment.  Unless you are
willing to invest millions in useability testing to
prove your theory, the best you can do is borrow
someone else's research, as KDE does, or else compile
your own set of rules, using convention as a
guideline.  In either case you can improve on the
model, but you cannot blatantly depart from it.



> > Users will have to adapt to new system. The
important thing is consistency,
> specially with normal world, not computer world.
All things have a learning
> curve, just make it easy but not by copying other
curves (Windoze is a
> zigzag ;] ).


The truth is that the desktop paradigm isn't all that
intuitive for new users.  This isn't a flaw of
windows; it's just a limitation of the model.  But
we're stuck with it until someone invents something
better, and I would argue that it's more important
for Gnome-App "A" to behave more or less like
Motif-App "B" and KDE-App "C", which are all running
on the same desktop, than it is for Gnome to be
consistant with the "real world".


The word "Dismiss" might avoid the confusion about
what Close does.  Remember, though: These problems
are going to re-occur in every localization.
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