Hi Rene-- Thanks for the quick response. On 11/01/2010 03:40 PM, Rene Engelhard wrote: > What's in your javasettings file? i assume this is no longer relevant (since i clicked on the radio button), but i've attached the file to this e-mail in case you're interested. >> 0) there is no need for 15 prompts, when one will suffice. > > But there's various functions apparentry trying to use Java whose don't > know of each other and each tell "Ey, Java broken!". Yes, i understand this from the programmer's perspective. But from the user's perspective, this is just pointless annoyance. If there is no mechanism to prevent the annoyance, perhaps one could be invented? I'm assuming that annoying the user is not the goal here. >> 1) if exactly one JRE is present and available, and the "Use a Java >> runtime environment" checkbox is checked, why not auto-select that >> item when trying to prompt like this? > > Because the info is in that file, and apparently it is broken. Again, i understand your explanation, but i don't think it addresses the user experience i'm bringing up: If the program can figure out that the existing config is broken, and can also figure out that (aside from the broken config) there will be exactly one available option in the relevant settings, why not try to switch to that automatically, or at least offer the user to do so? >> 2) If the dialog box must be shown (e.g. if there are 0 or 2 or more >> JREs available), then [[OK]] seems problematic; you're asking the >> user to remember a path through an infrequently used UI. Instead of >> just [[OK]] in response to the prompt, why not offer a button that >> takes the user to the relevant configuration setting? > > Tools->Option might be "infrequently used", but Options is not a menu > which is hidden - everyone should know it. And those who don't know > get told. (personal opinion) Again, I understand, and i'm happy to have a more-educated user as well. I'm trying to make proposals which would make the user's experience simpler and less annoying. If we can make the tools less user-hostile, we'll have happier, more-engaged users. Thanks for your work on OpenOffice in debian! Regards, --dkg
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