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Naming alert panel buttons.
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Naming alert panel buttons.


  • Subject: Naming alert panel buttons.
  • From: Erik Buck <email@hidden>
  • Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:39:56 -0700 (PDT)

We have all seen the ubiquitous "OK" "Cancel" buttons.  Many people have recommended more descriptive names that include verbs for button labels. 
 
I just ran across a Cocoa application that shall remain nameless.  I attempted to cancel a long running operation by pressing a "Cancel" button, and an alert panel appeared asking if I wanted to "OK" or "Cancel".  I correctly interpreted that as do I want to OK the cancel or do I want to cancel the cancel.  It did boggle my mind a little.
 
I bring this up because I ran across another application today that took the advice of using more informative verbs for button labels.  I tried to cancel an operation, and a panel appeared.  The two choices were "Cancel" and "Cancel".  I assume they meant cancel the operation or cancel the cancel.  The mind boggles.
 
To make this more Cocoa related, is it worthwhile to add a feature to AppKit so that you can't have two buttons with the same label on one panel ?  Is there some other way that Cocoa or the tools can "help" application developers avoid silly errors ?  The layout guides in IB helped a lot to standardize layout.  Is there a way to standardize other aspects of user interface presentation ?  Is this something better left to individual developers and used as an indicator of overall application quality ?
 
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