Subject: Re: definitions -- *DI window management
From: Dom Lachowicz (dominicl@seas.upenn.edu)
Date: Mon Aug 20 2001 - 14:24:07 CDT
> No, this one's been particularly bad. I think it's because (a) it's a
> very small feature of the UI but (b) it pulls in the whole design
> philosophy for the app. So people end up arguing over fundamental design
> philosophy when the question at issue is whether many people are
> confused by the behaviour of the Close button when there's one window
> open (they are -- to reverse Dom's post, just about everyone who hasn't
> actually coded Abi finds the behaviour confusing) and whether we should
> do anything about it (probably not). It's a small issue that drags in
> big issues, so the amount of disagreement seems disproportionate to the
> likely benefit.
>
> Anyway, this is my last post on the issue, too. I'm still not convinced
> but, frankly, it *is* a very small point, and not worth the bandwidth
> it's consuming.
Just to put my final few dollars in, File->Close and clicking the 'X' close
button should have exactly the same behavior. Clicking 'X' and not having your
window go away is a bad thing (except, maybe, if the user chose 'Cancel' from an
"Unsaved Document" prompt). You should not have to hit 'X' twice to close your
window (once to close the open document, and once to close your application).
Adobe Acrobat 4 on Linux does this, and everyone I know that uses it finds the
behavior fscking annoying.
In particular, my girlfriend and mother don't find this behavior confusing at
all (in fact, they find it intuitive and are quite scared of dialog boxes and
windows that don't close when you've selected the "Close" option). Ruth and her
roommates (who are definitely computer illiterate people) tend serve as my
usability lab :)
It seems quite intuitive that if you choose to close the last open window, you
have no more windows open. File->Close is like removing one open window. 1 open
window minus 1 window to close equals 0 windows left and does not leave you with
some "hollow shell", at least in my world.
Dom/motto "You can't please all of the people all of the time"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Aug 20 2001 - 14:24:09 CDT