Re: The HIG and Open a Copy

Am Montag, den 21.02.2005, 17:05 +0000 schrieb Alan Horkan:
>
> Just because something is not in the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines does
> not mean it shouldn't be in Abiword. Open a Copy may not be a heavily
> used feature but it being absent from the HIG is not reason enough on its
> own to remove it.

I must admit my initial argumentation only referring to the HIG was
probably not very convincing.
I think that "Open a Copy" is not needed because
+ It's not used very frequently. (Use cases?)
+ I'd rather have revisions turned on by default, so the user can manage
her/his versions within one file instead of having multiple files
cluttering the default save location (new users often tend to save
everything at one place).
+ For advanced users it should not cost much time hitting ctrl+c ctrl+v
in the file manager to get a copy.
+ Another alternative for advanced users is the "Save a Copy" menu item.

That said i think the simplification of removing the "Open a Copy" menu
item is in the spirit of the HIG which promotes uncluttered menus. If
people want it back for win32 or cocoa i'll put it back in.

Best,
- Rob

> See the below message from Calum Benson, one of the authors of the HIG.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Alan Horkan
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 16:51:33 +0000
> From: Calum Benson <Calum.Benson@Sun.COM>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana@maths.tcd.ie>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] gedit's Save A Copy
>
> On Mon, 2005-02-21 at 16:16, Alan Horkan wrote:
>
> > as one of the authors of the HIG could provide a helpful quote?
>
> I think the introduction to the Windows UI guidelines says it best... we
> should probably say something similarly explicit in ours:
>
> You can extend these guidelines, provided that you do so in the
> spirit of the principles on which they are based.
>
> The same completely applies to the HIG: just because it's not in the HIG
> doesn't mean you can't do it, just that you ought to do it in the spirit
> of, and preferably without contravening, the other guidelines therein.
>
> Cheeri,
> Calum.
>
Received on Mon Feb 21 18:28:23 2005