[Usability] markup in the statusbar messages, why not?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

Although I dont see any specific mention of it here
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/controls-status-bars.html
I was pretty sure the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) recommended against
using markup in the Status Bar text.

One of the Inkscape developers thinks it is worth doing and has in fact
already done it.

I tried to suggest various reasons why it might not be a good idea, such
as the markup being distracting/annoyin, adding unnecessary complexity
particularly for translators and making messages more difficult to
translate by making it harder to automatically resuse similar phrases.
(the developer thought these were not big enough reasons not to do it and
he put in the work needed to get the English version done so at this
stage I'm looking at damage limitation as much as anything else).

If there are reasons against using Markup on status bar messages (and if
anyone can find a specific refernce to it in the HIG) I would be
interested to hear that so as to help the Inkscape developer avoid any
problems or at least manage any known issues.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org
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