[squeak-dev] Chaotic menu item positions, for example [was: What turns off newcomers]

Klaus D. Witzel klaus.witzel at cobss.com
Fri Apr 11 12:17:17 UTC 2008


On Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:15:39 +0200, David J. Goehrig wrote:

> Andreas Wacknitz wrote:
>> And many of the newcomers get alienated by many aspects of Squeak:
>>     - it is hard to find documentation
>>     - it is hard to get used to Morphic (its power isn't obvious but
>> its clutter is)
>>     - it is hard to find a Squeak version with not so many obvious
>> bugs and problems
> Long time lurker here,
>
> Short answer: (For those who don't want to read the post)
>
> Newcomers are turned off by seemingly irreducible complexity of the
> system; Squeak need continual refactoring.
...

May I add, w.r.t. the menu item position of "remove (x)" in the other  
thread. For me as an oldtimer there are only two rules, a] + b], for  
arranging menu items:

a] productivity
1 - adding a new category, class, method, has more productive than  
anything else
2 - finding a thing you know how to spell
3 - searching for a thing you don't know how to spell
4 - copy,cut,paste & doIt,printIt & other sub-tools
5 - organizing your work (rename, etc)
6 - removing the unwanted

b] the divine words of the goods of our language, for example the  
arrangement of the menu items found in the text editor pane (Transcript or  
Workspace); they do define the default resp. overrule a].

Rule b] has importance when you consider all the publications, tutorials,  
etc, in which menu items are mentioned and/or documented. I think that the  
position of menu items must be as-consistent-as-possible accross all  
available tools, otherwise the newcomers won't feel comfortable.

------------

That is not to say that there should be no customization possible for the  
user but, I haven't seen any.

------------

Please do not hesitate and post your suggestions and observations with  
menu item positions.

/Klaus



 




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