[Webfunds-devel] Line endings and wizards (was: Re: [Webfunds-commits] java/webfunds TODO_SCW)

Wed, 16 Aug 2000 22:18:40 +0000

--On 08/16/00 15:51:48 -0400 Ian Grigg <iang@systemics.com> wrote:

>> > +      I.a)  Contract - all these can be repaired and saved on the fly
>> > +
>> > +        + no trailing spaces
>> > +        + uniform line endings
>>
>> OpenPGP removes these automagically, so I would consider these fixed.
>
> Trailing spaces is a matter of cleanliness only.
>
> Uniform line endings is more a matter of communications,
> once it is saved with the wrong line ending for the platform,
> strange things start to happen with other tools & comms.
>
> These are lower priority.

What exactly is the bug here? OpenPGP removes trailing spaces and applies 
uniform line endings before signing, so what's the problem?

>> Save button is a bad idea, as it defeats the idea of a wizard, but yes it
>> is a good idea to have a similar feature.
>
> This was indeed gist of conversation; that a Wizard does things as it does
> things and changing it is not a Good Thing (tm).
>
> My comment on that is that I need these features to make the code
> usable and workable in the face of users.  If the user interface
> for a Wizard is unchangeable & A Bad Thing (tm) then I'm quite happy
> if the changes are made and we change the name to Warlock, Witch,
> or any other Wonderous Thing (tm).
>
> The problem with not having the Save button (and other non-Wizard
> features) is that I and other contract writers have to go through this
> dozens of times before we get it right, so we end up walking thru
> the process so many times that we tear our hair out over doing the
> same 3 minute typing process over and over and over....

No save button does not mean that it cannot be saved, it just means that it 
has to be implemented a bit different in a wizard: not with a save button, 
but with a box asking for the filename and then saving on clicking 'next'. 
In this case this would just be an extra box on the FinishSig panel.

The main advantage of a wizard is that it can be used by anyone without 
studying any documentation. The disadvantage is that advanced users find 
wizards annoying. But if you only want to target advanced users, why not 
write a command line tool that does the same thing in minimal time, once 
you understand what the f*ck it is doing?

Edwin