From: Peter L. <spa...@si...> - 2005-10-20 19:54:52
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Luke Schierer wrote: > On Thu, Oct 20, 2005 at 02:51:40PM +0100, Richard Laager wrote: > >>On Thu, 2005-10-20 at 08:26 -0500, Levi Bard wrote: >> >>>It's been explained to me recently that slash commands are evil, and >>>that the only way new commands would be added is in the event of a >>>command interface redesign - something like ctrl-] brings up a >>>floating command entry, into which the user then enters his >>>(presumably slashless) command. >> >>Eww. That sounds horrible. What's wrong with slash commands? >> >>Richard > > > There is nothing inherently wrong with slash commands. The problem > Ethan and I raised in #gaim was one of intuitivity. Would you, > having come from WinAIM or WinICQ, expect a string starting with a / > to be treated differently than one starting without a /? its one > thing to expect a user to learn that control-shift-up is a history or > that control-tab will switch tabs. Users expect, to a limited degree > (see the fuss over control-c and control-v), to learn new key strokes > with a new program. They do not expect to have to learn a new way to > format their ideas. Which is essentially what this entails. "Opps, > I don't actually want to add someone here, better put a space there" > "oops, I didn't know that did anything" so on and so forth. > <snip> This gets to the core of a problem in gaim, somewhat related to slash commands. There's either 'work as the native client does', or 'have a consistent user experience across all protocols'. Whilst assuming people move to gaim from another client, I don't believe for an instant that this should dictate the entire UI. By forcing the original native behaviour onto people leads to users having to learn how the original client behaves. Thus, instead of learning gaim, they have to learn to be fluent in Gaim, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, SILC, Jabber, IRC, etc. I believe this extra effort is rather stupid if the target is to have a simple user experience. Regards, Pete. |