Re: terms: window/dialog

Subject: Re: terms: window/dialog
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 07:09:05 -0800

Barclay Blanchard <BarclayB -at- txlink -dot- com> wrote:

>I've been happily writing along for a few years using
>"window" as a description of everything in the
>Windows interface with a title bar, fields, and buttons,
>and today a programmer was telling me that when
>you can't resize the "window," it's a dialog.
>
>Have I been ignoring a standard naming convention?
>
>What do you call these objects: windows or dialogs?
>
>How much does it matter? (Have I erred egregiously?)

Question: has anybody using the documentation every complained
about your usage? If not, don't worry about the issue.

Technically, your programmer was correct, but only reasonably
computer-literate users will make the same distinction. If
anything, some users might even be confused if you insisted on
this distinction.

The distinction is only useful if your audience is aware of it
and/or it is important for them to do a task.

--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Vancouver, BC, Canada
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com (604.421.7189)

"But the backdrops peel and the sets give way,
And the cast gets eaten by the play....
And the patrons and actors are uncertain if the show is through"
And with sidelong looks await their cue."
- Alan Moore, "V for Vendetta"






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