[pilot-db-list] Friendly Suggestion re. basic questions

[<aji...@t-...>]

Hallo all,

In the past few weeks there have been a number of
new users asking some very basic questions such as
'How do you delete a database'
'How do you copy a database'
etc.

Now I can understand that these questions get
on the nerves of the 'Pilot-DB team' - to which
I count myself to be a part of - but the rather
frustrated answers (including my own) seem to
intimidate many potential users, especially such
that are very new to the PalmOS - we were novices too -
and often result in them not geting to know the beauty
of this wonderful program!

I have just added a link to the FAQ in the Documentation
on the main page and found out that there are only two questions
listed!

The two questions listed above, which are asked very, very,
often, for example, are not.

My first suggestion is to get a list of such questions and the
answers. The editors of the documentation should add these to
the FAQ. I could add these to the online documentation myself,
but this would result in a different documentation online, than
the distributed manual - which I do not think is a good idea,
but I would do it, if asked.

My second suggestion is to consider why these questions are asked
so often. I have pondered over this for quite a while and have
come to the conclusion that this must be due to a non-standard
user-interface - I hope the software developers will not undestand
this as a criticism - it does not mean that the one used at the moment
is a bad one -  it is just that it does not seem to be a standard,
although it is very nice and elegant.

In my opinion there are two possiblities - either we keep this
non-standard (and elegant and nice) user interface and take
into account that we will keep getting such inquiries and
keep getting upset about it since the no. of users keep
increasing, or else we should change the user interface
to be more 'intuitive'.

Once we have gathered a list of the recurring basic inquiries we should,
in my opinion, analyse these and react by slightly changing the
User Interface, even if it means double menus and a bit more memory -
I personally think the time we save not answering such questions- if
that would be the result - is worth it.

Take, for example the question 'how do you copy a database'

The fact that one can click on the icon to the left of the database is
not obvious, in my opinion, but it is very elegant solution!
The easier, more intuitive, but not so elagant version of doing this
would be to be able to mark and highlight the database without opening
it and then being able to choose to delete, copy, edit it (etc) from
the DB-Menu.

This (non-elegant solution) could be the default version with an option
in the preferences to switch to the current, more elegant solution.
This could be selected once the users get acquainted with the software,
for example, or be an option directly under the menu with the options
delete, copy, edit etc.

Now I know that this is not really necessary, but it would save us having
to ask the users to read the manual, which no one does anyway!! That has
always been the unfortunate fate of *ALL* developers!! I also know that this
means a few more bytes of memory and also redundant menus, but is it not
worth it?

My last suggestion is to let the users decide if this is a possible way to
go - that would, again in my personal opinion, support the OpenSource idea.

I am not a programmer, so it is easy for me to make such suggestions - it is
just that the tone of some recent answers (including my own!) do not reflect
the beauty of the program.

Once again this is just a friendly suggestion - it is not inteded to be in
any
way offensive to the developers who have really done a great job in their
spare time!

Hans