[Dynapi-Dev] Light widgets. (or "remember the user!")

[Doug M. <do...@cr...>]

Okay. Maybe this is why the lightest widgets should be called =
widget_light.js

What I want everyone to understand is that not every user of the dynapi =
will be an advanced Javascript programmer. Nor are we desiging this =
soley for our use.

We are, after all, trying to define the next generation =
all-browser-all-platform javascript library here.

But in order to get any level of acceptance at all, we have to remember =
the users.

A _USER_ is not us.=20
A user has no intemate knowledge of the internal workings of the dynapi.
Nor do they want to.
A user can have any level of compentance.
Or none at all.
A user has the statistcal attention span of _7 seconds_=20
when looking at something new and shiney.

And where not just talking about people who find us through google =
either.
On more than one occasion I have landed a contract simply on the =
apperent strength of the DynAPI 2.
Not just that it's pretty and works, but that I could train any of their =
code monkeys to maintain the code I
would write for them.

Now comes DynAPI 3 and those contracts I did not get due to the api =
seeming 'slow' or 'heavy' now promise
to be a thing of the past. With tighter integration of inline creation, =
a smoother events structure, and ligher=20
acetecture this version actually has the portential to take off, to =
allow us to do greater thing, to let the _user_
do greater things, but none of this will matter if we forget to =
"remember the user"

:-)

Post Script: I am not saying more coplex widgets and components are bad, =
only that we need to maintain a base of simple widgets to allow for =
siple tasks to be completed by simple users.

Thus ends the official Doug Melvin Rant on Usability for DynAPI 3.. Had =
to come sooner or later right?=20
I just figured sooner would be better.