RE: [eclipse-dev] The "Yes, No, Always, Never" Dialogs

["Sean McRae" <SMcrae@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

+++1

Can I use some SlashDot karma? ;-)

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Pollock [mailto:douglas.pollock@xxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 4:09 PM
To: Eclipse Developers Mailing List
Subject: [eclipse-dev] The "Yes, No, Always, Never" Dialogs


Hello all,

Recently, different Eclipse teams have been adopting a style of dialog that 
uses four buttons in the button bar at the bottom.  These buttons are: Yes, 
No, Always and Never.  I believe this style of dialog to be overly wide, and 
somewhat divergent from the de facto standards arising in the industry.  
There is also an unclear semantic with the "X" in the title bar to close the 
dialog.

In other applications, such as Mozilla and Konqueror, there is a check box 
provided which says something to the effect of "Remember my decision".  By 
combining this check box with a "Yes" and "No" button, the dialog only needs 
to be two buttons wide while capturing the same combination of possible 
responses.  This is also similar to the prompt that appears when exiting 
Eclipse.

These dialogs are also missing a clear cancel semantic.  It is possible that 
the user did not know that the action they triggered required answering a 
question.  The user might not have the information required to answer the 
question immediately -- needing instead an opportunity to return to the main 
application.  When a modal dialog is open, this is not possible.  In most 
cases, a "Cancel" option would be preferred -- allowing the user to stop the 
action entirely.  This gives them a chance to consider their options.

Also, some of these dialogs treat closing them using the "X" in the title bar 
as a "No" response.  In general, I would suggest that closing the dialog with 
the "X" is actually an attempt to cancel the action entirely.

So, in summary, I'm recommending the following 3 things:
1.) Replace "Yes/No/Always/Never" dialogs with "Yes/No/checkbox" dialogs;
2.) Add a "Cancel" button to most, if not all, of the dialogs; and
3.) That "X" should alway means "Cancel".



d.
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