Author: Ratko V Tomic
Date: 04:11:03 11/30/00
Go up one level in this thread
> Look in the File menu, your most recently opened databases are > listed at the bottom of the menu, good chance you have stored them > in one of those. The "Open Database" option (in Tiger II) seems to go always to folder "My Documents" like Microsoft Office or IE products. After I waste time navigating to the entirely different drive & folder, to where Tiger II databases are, and select the database, next time I restart Tiger II, it still goes back to "My Documents." Generally, the UI seems to lack any memory between program activations (or its installed folders) where the stuff is and on every Common Dialog for file open/save goes to Microsoft Office default folders, wasting user time to navigate to the folder used last time (which are in Tiger's install folder in the first place and ought to be defualt the 1st time anyway; later the default should be wherever user picked database last time.) There are several reasons one should not keep their data files (of any sort) in "c:\My Documents," one it piles up needlessly on C drive (and Windows becomes very flaky when its install drive gets nearly full). More importantly, Microsoft (and Netscape) communication products have had series of bugs (or backdoor "features" depending on perspective) where a site can access and read (or even write) your files provided they can guess where the file is. Similarly, number of "spyware" products (attached to various "free" communication utilities or games) transmits data to their home base. In either case, putting your data files in the Microsoft suggested folders (the practice which somehow meshes a bit too well with their bugs/backdoors) makes your data much more vulnerable to either malicious web sites or viruses (which naturally will mess up the standard places, e.g. My Documents, first). It is also very annoying to keep anything in folders names "My Documents" "My Web" "My Favorites" ... -- the whole computer is mine anyway, while this naming scheme implies that the rest of my hard disks is Microsoft's and only what Microsoft generously labels "My" is mine (well thanks a lot, Mr. Gates for having me in mind). A suggestion for the next UI version would be to remember a bit more, especially its installation folders and the folders used last time. Basically, anything where user has spent his time typing/navigating as explicit input (of folders, choices,...) should be sticky, the program ought to remember it and use it as default offer on the same question the next time (including accross program activations). Why should user have to waste time navigating so the program could save 100 bytes on saved folder name or programmer a few lines of code to save & restore it? That kind of "economy" stopped making sense ever since disks exceeded 160K (at least). Another UI suggesiton would be to disable splash screen & its sound effects. I renamed splash image file and that did prevent it from being displayed, but the program apparently still wastes my time every time I run it waiting through its splash-screen timeout. There also seems to be a bug in overlapped database window repainting, when it overlaps with a large chess board -- when database is behind the chessboard, clicking on the database window area places it on top everywhere except on the top of chessboard. I have to maximize it, then reduce size again to have it come on top of chessboard. Similarly when I want to go back to chessboard, I have to click on every sub-window (board, moves, status, etc) to get the database window to go behind. Compare all this hassle to the Chessbase's single click back and forth between database & playing screen. The first bug above with overlapped windows is probably due to improper handling of window repaint when user has set his Explorer shell to "Show window content while dragging" (have you tested window switching under such shell setting?). The second problem (when going away from database) is the result of the overly-literal adherence to the Microsoft's shell & Notepad default behaviors & settings. Well, not all applications are shells or text editors, there is no reason to mimick mindlessly those conventions (which aren't that well though out, to start with, even in their domain) in every application to the last dot. I think you should play a bit with Chessbase UI, then yours and see which one wastes more user time on common operations (such as going back & forth to database & play). If anyone's UI should be mimicked by other chess programs, it should be Chessbase UI, and surely the last one to mimick should be Microsoft Notepad (which is about the worst editor anyone, ever, thought up). You can also check the website "Software Hall of Shame" at: http://www.iarchitect.com/index.htm which has many commercial product examples of bad UI (including Microsoft's products, Notepad and Explorer shell especially, and their conventions mimicked by others). I think the future versions of CP would benefit from learning a lesson from some of those examples. However incredible it may sound to some, Microsoft doesn't always know best (or means always the best, at least not for the end-user).
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.