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Re: Whither book "Developing Windows Error Messages"
Subject:Re: Whither book "Developing Windows Error Messages" From:Martha J Davidson <editrix -at- SLIP -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 22 Dec 1998 14:52:35 -0800
At 02:44 PM 12/22/98 -0800, Chuck Martin wrote:
>Lani Hardage wrote:
>>
>> I wouldn't do away with all error messages. Many of them save you from
>> yourself, as in, "Do you really want to blow away all the work you just
did,
>> or did you mean to hit the other button?"
>
>I disagree. Such confirmations really say "We, the programmers, think
>you are too dumb to know what you are doing, so are you sure you wanted
>to click that button?" Treating users like idiots is not a good
>approach. Given a clear software interface, user really do, in general,
>know what they want to do.
What about all of the times I *knew* what I wanted to do, but my fingers
still clicked the wrong button? I'm often grateful for those "Are you really
sure?" messages; they've saved me from "oh @#%#!, how can I get out
of this without having to recreate everything?" any number of times.
--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson} mailto:editrix -at- slip -dot- net
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?"
--Hillel, "Mishna, Sayings of the Fathers 1:13"
