Re: Comments on dialog proposal

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Michael Rogers wrote:

> The close button should be labelled 'OK' because that has the
> widely-understood meaning "the settings currently displayed in the
> dialog are acceptable, apply them and close the dialog". 'Close' doesn't
> have clear semantics - it could mean 'Cancel' (the stock icon makes this
> worse).

Hmm... OK, Close and Cancel are always supposed to mean exactly the same
thing, wherever they are used:

OK = apply my unsaved changes now and close the dialog;
Close = close the dialog, without making any further changes;
Cancel = close the dialog, discarding any changes I've made in the
dialog since opening it.*

If their meaning is being abused anywhere, we ought to stamp on it.  

You do raise a very good point about the stock icons for "Close" and
"Cancel", however-- can anybody suggest more distinct ones that we could
use for 2.0?

Cheeri,
Calum.

* Or conventionally, in a modeless settings dialog, "since I last
pressed Apply", which is where the fun starts...

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems