Re: phrasing suggestion
(cc'ing mutt-users, sorry if this is a duplicate)
On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 12:41:18AM -0500, Derek Martin wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 06, 2005 at 02:27:26PM -0800, Frederik Eaton wrote:
> > When a user exits the message composition mode, and sees the "Postpone
> > this message?" prompt, it would be nice if the phrasing of this prompt
> > made it clear that his choice isn't just between postponing his
> > message and doing something else, it's between postponing it and
> > losing everything he just typed.
>
> Since others have voiced at least some agreement to this thread, I'll
> add my $.02 and just say that the current behavior seems both
> satisfactory and obvious. You do, after all, get to the postpone
> prompt by pressing 'q' (by default) to exit message composition.
> Assuming that you want to do this, I don't see what other options
> could exist besides postponing or aborting. Unless you are unfamiliar
> with the definitions of the words "exit" and/or "postpone", I don't
> really see where there's any opportunity for confusion. IMNSHO, I see
> no need for a change.
If a change would make it clearer for some people and no worse for
anyone else, then I don't see a reason not to change it. However, if
no one on this list but Thomas agrees with me that there is room for
confusion, I guess further discussion is moot. I think input from new
users would be valuable, however, which is why I've cc'ed mutt-users.
Note that (1) it isn't obvious that another question won't follow the
"Postpone..?" one, (2) as I've said, it isn't obvious that the
alternative to postponing is discarding (postponing could be the same
as exiting message composition mode - this would be similar to the
gnus UI, in which case 'n' would mean 'cancel'), (3) in 99% of other
contexts, if a user asks to quit, and the application wants to verify
that it is ok to discard unsaved data, the question takes the form of
some variation of "Save changes?" - mutt's "Postpone..." is fairly far
from that pattern.
Frederik
(here is Thomas' response:)
> Hello Frederik,
> maybe something like 'Postpone this message? (No discards the message)'
> is better, however I have set postpone=no and use P, y and q
> to handle it without any questioning.
>
> On the other hand I think, that we all have lost a message that way and
> learned that hard way what *not* todo.
>
> Sincerely,
> Thomas