Re: Fire defun by typing keyword

[John Bokma <john@castleamber.com>]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> "Look and feel" is just the final polish on the top
> surface.

You're severely mistaken.

> If configuration is possible, as it always is
> for any good application, it could be left entirely to
> the user.

A lot of users, including me, prefer that things mostly out-of-the box.
I work as a programmer and really prefer to avoid having to tinker each
and every piece of software (or hardware) I use.

> "Look and feel" should *never* be the purpose or reason
> for programming 

Same mistake as above. There is a huge difference between a
well-researched user interface and one tinkered together by a programmer
to scratch his own itch. I've read quite a bit about UI design and I
still make mistakes because I think too often like a programmer (or:
from a testing point of view).

Luckily, my customers have no problem correcting me, and often I think:
"Should've thought about that".

A good user interface is one that doesn't need to be configured most of
the time and doesn't get in the way. That requires research and
testing. And of course such a user interface needs to be programmed.

Maybe you mean "eye candy"? Still, an application that looks good gives
me pleasure to work with. So in my case I prefer some eye candy. For
example, "syntax highlighting" was, in my experience, frowned upon years
back; eyecandy, pointless, etc. But I prefer it, and I think it makes me
more productive.

> - of many unpleasant words to describe
> that, "absurd" is the most pleasant. Reinvention of the
> (blue) wheel is reinvention of the (red) wheel.

Our eyes are more sensitive to red, so a red wheel is more visible in
the dark. Also, you don't want to drive in a car with the "reinvented"
wheels of the 18th century, let alone with the original invention...

-- 
John Bokma                                                               j3b

Blog: http://johnbokma.com/        Perl Consultancy: http://castleamber.com/
Perl for books:    http://johnbokma.com/perl/help-in-exchange-for-books.html