[haiku-development] Re: About $application
- From: "Curtis Wanner" <katisu@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 23:29:58 -0400
Ryan Leavengood wrote:
>It sounds like a common Haiku AboutWindow class would be useful. It
>could simply take the application title, Haiku copyright years, a list
>of authors, and maybe "original copyright/written by/etc." freeform
>text. Given that information it could format it nicely and
>consistently across applications and provide the extra features Jonas
>mentioned.
First Issue - I suspect a lot of application developers probably wouldn't
conform to this consistent idea. Although it might be a good idea to be
consistent for applications that are being included with the base
distribution.
Second Issue - The About Window is an issue that Cooper addresses
specifically in usability book. Technically what has been described doesn't
really tell you "about the application". It might be about who wrote it and
owns the rights. Cooper likes to call this an "Identity" Window. If done
right, an About Window for an application should tell you what the program
is and what capabilities it has and doesn't have. For example, a paint
program would tell you what editing features it has and what formats it can
save in.
Sorry, I'm really not trying to be a Cooper "ditto-head", but I believe he
has a solid point on this issue. Do you really think current About Windows
offer users valuable information about the program itself??
IMHO if this project aims be forward thinking, blindly following old
standards that don't make logical sense is not the method.
Curtis
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