On Fri, 2007-01-05 at 08:23 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote: > For a lot of things, software should work like an appliance. If the > thing that needs to be done can be predicted, just do it without > offering any choices. Doesn't work for everything of course... Therein lay the rub... That approach is often applied to things that do get used in different ways. One my pet peeves is inadequate explanations. For instance, I never use the "synchonise" option on various software, because it doesn't explain what's going to happen. Are the files that are not on the server going to be wiped off the client, so they're the same? Or vice versa? Are the two going to be made so that they both contain the same, adding what's missing on the opposite? To any software author putting a "synch" feature in, bloody well explain what yours is going to do! I've seen applications work either way, and you end up losing data. The Evolution mail client is a classic case of next to bloody useless documentation. The guide rarely gives more information than you can work out for youself from reading the legends in the GUI. And fails miserably at explaining what isn't self explantory in the program.
