Re: Default button in dialogs

[James "M." Cape <jcape ignore-your tv>]

On 31 May 2001 23:07:08 +0100, colin z robertson wrote:
> On Thu, May 31, 2001 at 03:50:17PM -0400, Julian Missig wrote:

[snip]

> > Do we agree that the *order* of buttons should be like that in the
> > second proposal? I believe that Apple's Mac guidelines back up the
> > button order chosen there.
> 
> My document has it differently, more in line with Windows practice
> than Mac. However, I'm easy on this point. I see it as a matter of
> pragmatism versus idealism, the ideal being the Mac way and the
> reality being that 90% or more GNOME dialogs are currently done the
> Windows way.

The purpose of a UI Guidelines document is to lead the way for
developers, and show them how they can best create an interface that
serves their users. If a UI Guidelines document does not lead the way,
but merely codifies current (and, IMHO, poor) practice, then I believe
it has failed. I realize that a large portion of the computing world
does it Windows' way, but that obviously doesn't make it right. And for
something as truly trivial as dialog buttons, it seems as though a *lot*
of time is being spent on something that really doesn't deserve it.
     So long as the GNOME UI is getting an overhaul through a set of UI
Guidelines, I think it best that we all agree that it doesn't matter
what we've said or believed before, and agree to simply set forth to
design the best interface we can, given the tools at hand (GNOME, GTK+).
If that means throwing out some work which we've done before, then
sobeit. We are here to help GNOME get good, not to throw some document
out on the heap and say "follow this, but we're going to be changing it
in a few weeks because it may not be the best."
     We must put aside differences & agree to work together,
irrespective of differences in time, space, or medium. I know that
virtually all of the persons responsible for the document on jmissig.org
are on IRC a lot (I myself have a full-time job, so I may not always be
around, but I try my best :-)), and believe it or not IRC is definately
a place where one can get a lot of work done, especially when it is a
topic that requires discussion, and I'm sure that these things will sort
themselves out quickly, especially when the delay between IRC messages
is a few seconds, as opposed to the few minutes of delay between
messages on this list. I do believe that the list should remain active,
but IRC allows a much faster pace to be maintained. #usability on
irc.gnome.org is the recommended forum for these kinds of things, BTW.

Thanks,

    Jim Cape
    http://www.ignore-your.tv

    If the United States Government spent as much on education
    as it did on the military, every student could fail in a
    solid gold desk.