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Subject:Fields arranged as a sentence From:LDurway -at- pav -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 19 Nov 2002 13:27:18 -0600
I want a few opinions on GUI style.
I'm documenting a GUI operation that requires the user to enter several
arguments. The programmer has arranged these fields as a sentence, sort of a
fill-in-the-blanks thingie. It looks like the following, where the angle
brackets indicate the fields & the type of value that the field accepts:
If <variable-name> is <less-than/greater-than/equal-to> <number> then
generate <event-type>.
I find this type of style awkward to document.
Question: Do you consider this sentence style to be a good thing or a bad
thing? or is a more label-oriented style better? I'm thining of proposing
a label-oriented style like the following:
Variable name: <variable-name>
Comparison operator: <greater-than/etc.>
...and so on.
The advantage of the programmer's style is that it communicates the
semantics of the operation better. Even so, it doesn't clarify the precise
nature of the args. The programmer says he can initialize each field with
an appropriate default indicating the type of argument the user needs to
enter. It's still seems funky to me.
The audience will mostly be from our own stable of experts--our typical
customer doesn't configure our software. They pay us to do it. So the
audience are experts, not novices who need much help understanding what the
fields mean.
Anyone have strong feelings about this? Suggestions?
Lindsey
--
Lindsey Durway
Software Documentation
Pavilion Technologies
(512) 438-1521
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