Re: Red cursor

How about just replacing the color of the "ovr" text from black to red
while keeping the "ins" color black. People might just spot it.
Additionally y'all could consider changing the "ins" and "ovr" with
'insert' and 'overwrite'.

Lastly, I believe that moving where the "ins" / "ovr" is displayed and
changing the "ovr" color would make the most difference. Placing the
"ins" / "ovr" box, if you will, at the top of the screen makes it easier
for people to see or find. After all, people read from top to bottom
and left to right.

Hubert Figuiere wrote:
> Alan Horkan wrote:
>
>>If you mean we should remove Overwrite Mode then I agree. (The keybinding
>>for switching to Vi/Emacs modes was disabled long long ago to similarly
>>prevent users getting accidentally trapped.)
>>
>>We should definately not remove the red cursor without replacing it with
>>something else which makes it so easy to identify the problem of users
>>trapped in Overwrite Mode. The red cursor is the symptom not the problem.
>>This comes up so frequently no one should be in any doubt anymore that it
>>is a real problem for ordinary users, our archetypal Church Secretary.
>>This is only the tip of the iceberg, this problem affects many users and
>>they do not know how to get out of it without asking someone, the solution
>>is too difficult to find on their own.
>>
>>For those few users who want to use Overwrite mode it would not be a big
>>deal to make them go through an extra step or two.
>
>
> The problem is that user press a key, the caret (insertion point) turns
> Red (most of them notice, but I'm still convinced that this is not
> enough) and it start overwriting as they discover (a better user
> feedback would make things more obvious as Red is not intuitive for that).
>
> The problem lies that they don't know which key they pressed and how to
> revert it.
>
> Several solutions to the problems:
>
> 1/ better user feedback with the caret. The suggestion in "Humane
> Interface", by Jef Raskin
> (http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201379376/figuierenet-20) is
> quite adequate: the caret has also "higlighted" text next to it to show
> about the replacement.
> Or something like having the caret turn into a square to cover the next
> letter, showing that it will overwrite which is IMHO a better compromise.
>
> 2/ better user feedback of the mode switch with a different way to
> toggle it. INS in the status bar is not really visible. I don't remember
> if clicking on it do anything, but if not that could be one of the things.
> Possible other way are:
> -have clippy tell you
> -have a dialog popup the first time you press insert key (with a
> default of "Don't show again"). Annoying but the user get the message.
> Combined to the caret feedback could work
> -largely improve the status bar, but we are reaching another user
> interface paradigm maybe with a notification bubble above the status bar.
>
> 3/ just remove the keybinding. After all, I'm pretty it is largely under
> used. I myself got confused when that happened.... in Emacs the first
> time, and there are actually some mode switched by keyboard shortcuts
> that I don't know how to switch out (still in Emacs).
>
> I'm open to other suggestion, but given how many user make the mistaken,
> there is definitely a design problem that should be adressed, and no
> technical reason should prevent us from doing it. It is the machine that
> must adapt to the human, no the other way.
>
>
> Hub
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-- 
Kelly
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