[Pan-users] Re: Use of radio buttons to select a download's queue position.

[Duncan]

walt <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Sun, 22 Jul 2007
20:06:58 +0000:

> On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:30:25 -0400, Dave Chand wrote:
> 
>> Hey Guys,
>>...
>>      The combo-box gui interface which is currently used to select
>> which postion in the task queue that a download goes is great, but
>> sometimes I wonder if little radio buttons would not be more convenient
>> way of choosing where the download should be positioned in the task
>> queue...
> 
> I like it.  In fact, I'd prefer that the Action choices would also be
> radio buttons.  I took forever to figure out that I could pick between
> three formats -- I never noticed that there were choices at all, in
> fact, until Charles pointed it out to me.

I wasn't sure what you meant until I went and looked.  Then it was 
clear.  I'm the type that normally explores all options, so was aware of 
it already, but I can see how some might miss it.

> The basic advantage of a drop-down menu is that the programmer doesn't
> need to know in advance how many items to expect -- e.g. a file-chooser.
> In this case the number of choices is small and fixed, so radio buttons
> would actually be more intuitive, I think.

The other thing to note, and this in fact may be why Charles chose the 
drop-downs, is that when there are multiple questions, multiple 
categories of options, having all options of all categories show up at 
once can be visually cluttered.  The drop-downs allow a user to deal with 
one question at a time, and only see the options for that single question 
at once.

Charles, and GTK/GNOME to an even greater degree, doesn't like cluttered 
interfaces.  The GNOME devs in particular are known to have an active 
policy of too much choice being a /bad/ thing, and for GNOME users, 
that's one of the most common complaints about KDE, that it's so in-your-
face with all those choices.

Now being a strong KDE person myself, to the point where pan is about the 
only GTK app I run and I don't want GNOME on my system, in part /because/ 
of this (to me) "retarded" policy, don't ask me to defend or explain it 
further.  However, it's possible, even likely, that the drop-downs were 
specifically chosen as a way of limiting the choices appearing on the 
screen at once, thereby proactively decomplicating the options dialog.  
Apparently, some users have such small minds that all those choices at 
once confuse them, so limiting the choices visible on screen at any one 
time, limiting what the user has to deal with at once, is seen as a 
/good/ thing.

So while I personally agree with you and would prefer the radio button 
interface, I'm not sure the added "visual clutter" is something that 
would agree with Charles, or indeed the GNOME HIG policies and guidelines.

Any dyed-in-the-wool GNOME users, that at least loosely fit the 
stereotype of hating all that choice KDE rubs in your face, care to 
comment?  Would this be fine by you or would it be too many choices at 
once or otherwise objectionable?

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman