[1044] in testers
kerberometer
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Aug 10 15:21:05 1990
From: kcunning@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
To: testers@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: kcunning@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, tad_staff@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 90 15:20:23 EDT
Howdy, in trying to document kerberometer, I made a simple error of inference
that I believe most users will make: I presumed the units on the gauge were
hours rather than tenths. Yes, I will document it however it works, but
this won't help the general user interface problem that in an un-notated
gauge that relates to time (ticket life-time), there's no way that most
people simply won't think it's hours rather than tenths.
I believe the gauge should show hours! At the very minimum, the gauge should
make explicit that it is NOT showing hours. Actually, if you want to use a
fraction gauge, you should at least offer, as a switch, the alternative to use
hours. What good does it do me to know I have 1/10th of my ticket life left?
-- to use this information quantitatively, I have to do some on-the-fly
conversion from base 10 to base 8!
If you MUST have a relative gauge (e.g., to accomodate 21-hour tickets), then
at least PLEASE have the gauge show 8 units, not 10; then, even if it's REALLY
showing eights, it will work like a clock for standard tickets, AND it will
show orders of 2 for all other tickets, which I think is more useful than a
a decimal scale (nested halves are more user-friendly than one set of tenths).
It is really a shock to have two similar dials on screen (xclock and
kerberometer), and have to think about them entirely differently!
Also, whether or not the above change is made, can kerberometer have a digital
interface also (i.e., a numerical counter about how much time is left, not
just the visual version). Perhaps this could be an option; but I would like
to know EXACTLY how much actual time -- in time units (not by eyeballing a
gauge) -- I have left.
I think the idea behind this program is GREAT!! I just find that the
implementation does not meet up to the greatness of the idea!
--Kevin
