[Usability] Re: Shouldn't "Finish" vs "Close" decision be made in the HIG [WAS: "Finish" vs. "Close" in gnome-control-center dialogs]

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

On Sat, 2006-03-25 at 17:58 +0100, Jaap Haitsma wrote:

> Otherwise the desktop will get very inconsistent.

I disagree with this. So long as the label and icon are actually
affirmitive for the user, it shouldn't matter what they are. The
HIG clearly states what spacing should be around the buttons, and
that the affirmitive button should be on the right (or left, in the
case of RTL languages). Therefore the affirmitive button should always
be in the same place in the dialog. It shouldn't matter what the label
is in the end, so long as it is affirmitive, rather than the opposite.
I don't think the HIG needs to specify what dialogs use what labels.
Perhaps we could make suggestions, such as "If you cannot come up with
a better label that is more specific to the dialog in question, you
should use _Finish with the GTK_STOCK_APPLY icon." But I don't think we
should force it really. We'll just end up with everyone switching if we
do, and other dialogs may be confusing, as _Finish might not be the most
appropriate label for them.

-- dobey