On 12 Jan 2006 at 16:41, Noel Stoutenburg wrote: > Since I don't know any details about the coding, I don't know how > hard it would be to change the order. I know the coding is not > identical, because in the lyrics, one can select the subspace > (verse, chorus, section), and also specify an exact part of the > selected subspace (verse 1, chorus 3, &c.), whereas the only way to > navigate the text block dialog, is sequentially by means of the > arrows. [NB: Yes, I know one can select a handle of a text block, > and edit that particular block]
The implementation is this: They use a spinner control, which when used to increment a number, generally adds 1 for the up arrow of the spinner control, and -1 for the down arrow. It may be that the "spinner control" is actually a "fake" one, created with a text box and two command buttons. That doesn't change the fact that it acts like a conventional spinner control. Whether or not that is an appropriate choice by the programmers is a more complicated issue. I always have to think twice myself when using the lyrics edit dialog, but that's because I'm thinking about the task at hand in musical/engraving terms, instead of about the numbers that I'm incrementing. Likewise with the measure edit dialog, clearly, to me, a horizontal soinner control would make much more sense. This is precisely the kind of issue that shows one of the places where computer programming is hard. If you choose the intuitive musical method, your spinner is going to behave differently in different contexts, which is bad UI design. However, I don't think that's one of those rules that is hard and fast, and should, I believe, be broken when it makes sense to do so. Another alternative would be to use user interface widgets that don't have implied behaviors that contradict the musically "intuitive" behavior. That's another subtle issue, and an example of the "law of leaky abstractions," where the computer programming issues leak through to the conscious level of users who have to adjust their thinking to the computer programming, instead of using a mental model that is appropriate to the task at hand. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
