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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: Interface design
Message-ID: <GDyIAr.M6u@world.std.com>
Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 19:04:03 GMT
References: <GDv88M.GI@world.std.com> <slrn9gucie.c2r.mwmiller@treehouse.columbus.rr.com> <GDxHDK.63o@world.std.com> <9eonuj$omk$1@news.panix.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
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Xref: news.duke.edu rec.games.int-fiction:63355

Andrew Plotkin  <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote:
>Sean T Barrett <buzzard@world.std.com> wrote:
>> *And none urging it be put at the top.*
>
>So, I've written Z-machine interpreters for the Mac and for X windows
>that put the status window up as an actual separate window. The user
>*can* move it below the story window. Entirely the user's choice.
>
>I've never moved the status line below the story window. Does anyone
>else do that?
>
>I mean, we can collect data, here.

There's a difference between "I've never tried it" and
"I've tried it and it sucked/made-no-difference."  People
are notoriously stick-in-the-muds when it comes to learning
new user interfaces. I'm awful about that: I still use mail ("mailx"?)
and rn (actually trn -x -X or whatever it is) on a unix system.
But changing where you have to look is a lot lower impact
than changing means of interaction.

There might be a plausible "standards" argument: it would be
confusing to play games if some had status lines at the top
and some had them at the bottom.

Some other conflicting factors to watch for in collecting the data:
  - do your interpreters remember the window configuration, or must
    the user "tediously" reconfigure it each time a (new) game is
    started?
  - have we reached a point where status lines are so unused (e.g.
    games without scores) that the reason nobody moves the status
    line is because it doesn't matter because it's just something
    to be ignored?

But on another level, I really don't care about the status line
anywhere near as much as the input; the comment about status lines
that started this thread was, IIRC, an aside to an aisde.

SeanB
