Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: revision control for documents (was plug-in foo)

[Thomas Zander]

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On Tuesday 23 December 2003 20:56, Tom Lord wrote:
>     > From: Thomas Zander <address@hidden>
>     >
>     > The point being; if you are lying to the user [...] your
>     > application should be upgraded to user expectations.
>
> What if your user interface has led users to
> expect a square circle or a blue sound?   How are you going to upgrade
> to _that_?

Now; I think you should work more with salesmen and marketing types; if the 
demand to show a square circle is big enough; then its going to be 
created. And you'd better make your application non-Euclidean!
But to bring you back to earth; the GUI is based around the application, 
but if the GUI gets new features that the backend does not support you 
either upgrade the backend or you refuse the feature.
This is the same statement as above.

> The point of they lying metaphor is that there are two logical models
> of what an application does and is capable of:  there's the model
> based in the data structures and algorithms of the code and then
> there's a model induced in the user's brain by the suggestions of the
> user interface.

Then your UI sucks.
Read the great book "design of everyday things" to see some great examples 
of "things" which have 2 models; each of which being an application that 
basically sucks.
The mental and the working model have to be similar; the mental model is 
allowed to be less detailed, but they should never contradict.

This naturally does not lead to good software; the Gimp sucks UI wise, but 
it only shows the model it implements. A bad model leads to bad UI.

Wasn't that obvious?
- -- 
Thomas Zander
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