On Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:33, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > Quick question for the list: how many people actually _like_ the fact that > the drop-down defaults to the first item in your chart of accounts? How > many people find it useful?
I'm trying to be more delecate than usual. A most important feature any program should have is to make it easy for the user to do the right thing. It seems to me that sql-ledger needs some improvement in that regard. One of the great things I've seen in Open Source software is that generally software authors are willing to admit their imperfections. Rather than, "you could view it as a bug because you just don't know any better," I we would all have been happier if Dieter had said, "If you don't like it that way, what would you prefer?" and "If anyone has a patch for this, send me a copy and I'll look to implementing it." I felt offended at the way it was put, and the comments weren't directed at me!. Several people have expressed a preference for doing it differently, so let's discuss better ways. Having the default be a dud account is, I suggest, a good workaround, but I think it would be better to insist on the user choosing an account. Whether that choice should persist beyond the one transaction I'll leave to others who have used the software more than I to comment on. I suspect that, as so often, the consensus will be "It depends." I'll take issue with the word bloat. It's a derogatory term often (mostly, I think) applied without giving a question much thought. At various times I've seen it applied to Windows OS/2 KDE Gnome the Linux kernel Perl PL/1 and before the term became popular, the notion was also applied to MVS, IMS (Instant Machine Sale), TSO (Total System Overhead) and more. Usually, a software product grows because people use it and a) Want more features b) Want more reliability. Both inevitably make the code-base larger, provide users with more decisions and make it harder to learn to use _all_ the features. People who don't give proper consideration to why the software product is so large and complex then complain of bloat. The immediate question is of reliability, not because the software crashes, but because a design choice leads to people often making mistakes. Let's change that design choice. There, I've been _much_ nicer than I felt like being an hour ago;-) -- Cheers John Summerfield Microsoft's most solid OS: http://www.geocities.com/rcwoolley/ ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1&refcode1=vs3390 ------------------------------------------------------- (un)subscribe: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sql-ledger-users Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
