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Re: setHidden: on MacOS 10.2
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Re: setHidden: on MacOS 10.2


  • Subject: Re: setHidden: on MacOS 10.2
  • From: Public Look <email@hidden>
  • Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:03:44 -0400

Best of all, don't hide interactive controls! Why not just disable the control that is not applicable. In my ad infinitum opinion, hiding user interface elements without providing user control of the hiding and unhiding via a consistent and familiar metaphor is evil.

In other words, palettes, drawers, tab views, sub-menus, disclosure triangles, and other mechanisms that give the user explicit control over what is hidden or unhidden are great.

Mysterious buttons that appear and disappear based on who knows what stimulus with no indication to the user how to get the button back or make it go away are evil. Even if it is obvious to the user but a non-standard user interface convention is used, it is probably evil. If a button is ever available, why not make it always visible but disabled when not available ? That way the user knows that under some situation the button is available. It won't be a surprise when it magically appears.


From the programmer's point of view, you don't have to write any special code to use a standard GUI feature and/or disable a control, so why do extra work for something evil ?

See my rants on this topic in the archives.
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  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: setHidden: on MacOS 10.2
      • From: Jeremy Dronfield <email@hidden>
References: 
 >setHidden: on MacOS 10.2 (From: Michael Becker <email@hidden>)
 >Re: setHidden: on MacOS 10.2 (From: Daniel Todd Currie <email@hidden>)

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