atw: Re: What do dialog boxes do?

Hi Michael

Jeez, I never expected that a little reference to Shakespeare would 
precipitate such an outpouring of creativity! 

I henceforth dub you Michael 'The Bard' Granat (well, it's an improvement 
on my last anagrammatical epithet, 'A Lethargic Man', isn't it?)

Howard

Howard Silcock
Technical Writer
Electronic Systems
ADI Limited
PO Box 14, Deakin, ACT 2600, Australia
Ph: +61 2 6234 6000
Fx: +61 2 6234 6011
Email: howard.silcock @adi-limited.com
Web: www.adi-limited.com




Michael Granat <megranat@xxxxxxxx>
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30/06/2006 01:53 AM
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Ah, Terry D,

This one got me thinking in strange ways, as some posts do, whether
Billy Shakes (no relation to Billy Gates, I trust) had no peer when it
came to describing the action of wayward dialog boxes.

I expect that he used Microsoft Bard 1.0 for Parchment, Professional
Quill Edition, so let's adapt a few passages and see how they might
well have appeared (displayed?) in a software manual.
My inserted words identified with << >>.

EXAMPLE 1.
Tardy dialog box closure
(From Twelfth-Night; or, What You Will  Act II. Scene IV.)

Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and Others.

<<Click OK>>

"For <<dialog boxes>> are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.
And so they are: alas, that they are so;
To die, even when they to perfection grow!"

EXAMPLE 2:
Overblown dialog box with nested functions:
(Including a bet each way on "appear" and "display".)
(From the poem The Rape of Lucrece.)

"Doth yet in this fair welkin once appear;
Till sable Night, mother of Dread and Fear,
Upon the world dim darkness doth display."
<<Oh that thy dreaded dialog box would go away!>>

and from the same poem, perhaps a hint at Shakespeare's thoughts on
the use of software application splash screens:
"And when his gaudy banner is display'd,
The coward fights and will not be dismay'd."

and as we all know full well, Terry D, one cannot close the Ghost, whilst
it is creating a copy of a drive or partition, or one's operating system
shall become corrupteth.

I end with an extract from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act I. Scene III.
(The Bard's remarkable OH&S warning from Laertes.)

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

<<Press Tab>>

"Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:"

Who was his intended audience!

Cheers,

Micky G.
Write Ideas
www.writeideas.com.au

Source: The Oxford Shakespeare.  1914.
<http://www.bartleby.com/70/>

At 19:08 29/06/2006, you wrote:

> From Howard:
><snip>
>It says 'Enter Ghost' each time, but this is followed the first time 
>by 'Ghost
>disappears' and the second by 'Ghost vanishes'. Evidently Shakespeare 
wasn't
>taught the importance of consistency, let alone balancing beginnings and
>endings. (How does that make you feel, Terry?)
></snip>
>
>Like vanishing up my own proverbial. Or like disappearing into a black 
hole.
>Hang on, I think I'll just hit the close button. I can't believe 
Shakespeare
>didn't close the ghost.
>
>Cheers,
>Terry


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