[no subject]

The next problem I have with it is that it's traditionally been used in
association with setting system preferences.  The Windows Control Panel,
Gnome's Control Center, Kde's Control Center, MacOS's Control Panels,
etc.  If the word control didn't already have a fairly specific
assosiation, it may have been an ok (though not perfect as noted above)
name for these objects.  Given that it does have a previous assosiation,
and how widely it is used, I think it would cause users (and
specifically new users) a lot of confusion.  What is the difference
between a "control panel", a "control", and a "system preference".  The
first two sound like they should do the same thing, but they don't.  In
reality the first and the third do the same thing.  Unforutately, the
name "control panel" has been so ingrained by MacOS and Windows over the
last 10-15 years, that it's not going to go away anytime soon (though
apple seems to be trying).  

The word "widget" doesn't really have this problem as it's already used
by many people to mean the objects we are talking about.  It has no
other strong assosiation, and won't be confused to mean something else. 
It also doesn't suffer from the first problem quite as dramatically as
"control" does.  "Control" implies that the element can be controlled
(which may or may not be true), while widget doesn't have nearly so
strong a correlation.  

If widget really just sounds too jargon-like, or unprofessional to some
of the developers here, why not simply use "window elements" or
something similar?  It's descriptive, isn't really jargon-like, and
shouldn't be as confusing. I don't really understand why people are so
incredibly set on using "control" when it doesn't even accurately
describe all of the things we are talking about.  What exactly am I
missing?

Mark Nelson

On Tue, 2002-07-30 at 11:01, usability-request gnome org wrote:
> Send Usability mailing list submissions to
> 	usability gnome org
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> 	http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> 	usability-request gnome org
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> 	usability-admin gnome org
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Usability digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. "widget" (Havoc Pennington)
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 1
> To: usability gnome org
> From: Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>
> Date: 30 Jul 2002 11:56:17 -0400
> Subject: [Usability]"widget"
> 
> 
> Guys, sheesh. We are not putting the word "widget" in the UI.  It's
> not even worth discussing. This thread is way too long.
> 
> Havoc
> 
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Usability mailing list
> Usability gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
> 
> 
> End of Usability Digest