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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Question about your KPresenter's review
From:       "Eric S. Raymond" <esr () thyrsus ! com>
Date:       2002-02-10 3:25:58
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aleXXX <alexander.neundorf@gmx.net>:
> > It looks far too much as though you have concentrated
> > on surface gloss without thinking carefully about architecture and
> > design principles and flexibility for future modification.
> 
> Well, I suggest you look at some code before you make such statements.

I'm certainly willing to be convinced I'm wrong about this.  But the evidence
so far is at best mixed.

> Yes, right. My first action is also always to disable some toolbars.
> 
> > It's like a bad parody of Microsoft Windows,
> > or rather what Windows would be like if Microsoft didn't do any
> > end-user testing (that is, an even *worse* pile of crap than it is
> > now).
> 
> You know that calling software "an even worse pile of crap" might sound a 
> little bit insulting to some people ?

I meant that *Windows* would be an even worse pile of crap without end-user
testing.  I presume you won't mind my insulting Microsoft. :-)
 
> > Here's another one.  You have many pulldown entries that duplicate
> > icon functions.  Why?  
> 
> Toolbars are optional, all actions have to be accessible via the menus.
> How do you want to use a toolbar using the keyboard ?

Actually, I would advocate disabling the toolbars by default, not the
pulldowns.

> Don't tell us what we have to learn or what we desperately need to
> read, please.  We are always open to suggestions, as long as they
> are expressed in some positive way.

In English we refer to my admittedly rather blunt remarks as a
"wake-up call".  In truth, I was unpleasantly surprised by what I
found.  I expected better.  Given that KDE's stated goal is to build
an end-user-accessible desktop, I would expect your group to have paid
more attention to sound UI design principles.

Some of you have.  Kmail has a clean, effective UI.  It makes Cathy happy.
Kpresenter is at the opposite extreme.  Most KDE software seems to me to be
somewhere between those in quality of UI documentation.

> Well, docs are fine, but another rule says "1. Users don't read 
> documentation. 2. Users don't read anything, not even message boxes" (from 
> "Joel on UI Design for programmers")

Cathy is an end user.  She wanted decent documentation, couldn't find it,
and was seriously hampered by its absence.  And if you think I have
been rude, you don't want to be in the same county when *she* expresses
her opinions on this subject.  Contemptuous laughter was the least of it.

An ounce of this kind of experience is worth a pound of theory that 
users don't read documentation.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
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