[Webfunds-devel] wizards & warlocks

Thu, 17 Aug 2000 11:40:41 +0000

--On 08/16/00 21:21:42 -0400 Ian Grigg <iang@systemics.com> wrote:

> Well, somewhere in between.  I need a "wizard" that can be used by
> 'advanced' users.  Which is why I'm quite happy to call it something
> else.  Or, to put it another way, the requirement for a wizard was
> fundamentally incorrect, we need something that is more advanced
> than a wizard, whatever that may be.
>
> Preparing contracts is a difficult task.  There are many things to
> check.  Doing it via command line is a possibility, but impractical
> because contract-preparing people don't normally know what a command
> line is.  In fact, they aren't in general so clued up as to what a
> computer is ... we're talking lawyers, doctors here an exception,
> Unix bufs are definately out of place.

You are contradicting yourself in these first two paragraphs. In the first 
parahraph you want a wizard for advanced users, in the second paragraph you 
want one for absolute beginners. Make up your mind!

> The issue here is that contract preparation is not a one-off serial
> task.  It *is* mostly a linear process, but it is a line that is
> travelled many times, backwards and forwards, and restarted many
> times.  So maybe this thing is more of a process editor.
>
> My image of the perfect process - always assuming infinite budget and
> resource - is one where the proto-contract is built up from nothing,
> saved and restored, filling in the dialogs with its contents, and
> gradually as time and new info is built up, proceeding to a final
> signing.  There are even many preliminary signings, it is indeed only
> when a contract is issued to the server, minted by the mintor and
> finally distributed as value to innocent users that we cross a point
> of no return.

And why can't this be done in a wizard?

It would be nice of you could draw up some requirements that can't be done 
in a wizard. The only thing I have seen so far is the 'save button', but I 
explained in another mail how one would get that same functionality in a 
wizard.

Edwin