Sheldon Simms wrote:
--- Waldemar Augustyn <waldemar nxp com> wrote:
1. Extension.It would be nice to abandon this very long ".mrproject" suffix.
Three-letter extensions seem to be a norm. *.pln or *.pnr ???
The extension is a bit long, agreed. I'm not sure if it really matters though?
OK, I did.
I think this is one of those little annoyances that turn people off.
Most expect three letters extensions, I would give it to them.
Planner is generally pretty good wrt the usability issues.
Very few in-your-face Unixisms. That's good.
I have to comment on this. The length of the file extension is NOT a usability
issue. You talk about "in-your-face Unixisms" without bothering to acknowledge
the facts -- that a three letter extension on a file name is an archaic remnant
of a dead operating system and is itself an "in-your-face" Microsoftism.
You say "Most expect three letter extensions" but what you really mean is "I expect
three letter extensions" or equivalently "I have such an emotional commitment to
whatever Microsoft Windows does, that I can't accept any deviation whatsoever".
My advice to you is to simply get over it and accept that fact that only a complete
idiot would reject a program because it adds ".mrproject" to the end of its files
by default. I prefer no extension at all. Using an extension to specify the contents
of the file is ridiculous. It is possible to change the extension of any arbitrary
file to ".exe" in Windows, and Windows is stupid enough to try and run it. Do you
really think that's a good thing?!
Three letter extensions have been widely accepted. It does not matter
who originated them (certainly not MS, their existence predates the
first IBM PC). I do not see the point of Planner fighting that war. I
believe it is in the product's best interest to go with the flow on
things that "do not matter".
My suggestion on the matter is to add a preferences dialog where the user can
select whatever extension he wants, or eliminate the extension entirely. A newly
installed Planner could have a default file extension of ".planner" or something
similar (".mrproject" is wrong because the program isn't called "Mr. Project"
any more). That way, the default would make sense, people like me could remove
the extension altogether, and pointy-haired bosses, Microsoft sycophants, and
other conformists could invent some a three letter extension.
That's fine as long as it does not insist on appending anything.
|
