From: [IDC]Dragon <idc-dragon_at_gmx.de>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 22:30:09 +0200 (MEST)

> An option is something you can choose to use or not, while letting others
> do the same - or rather different. If an option doesn't suit you, just
> don't use it, but please don't ask people to remove it just because YOU
> don't use it.

The most options would be an empty RAM, 8 million binary options to set.
Programming means to reduce this.

Seriously, if you don't use an option, it'll confuse you, or at least lets
you lose the overview. The overwhelming number of options is Rockbox'
biggest disadvantage, imho. It's made from engineers for engineers, unlikely
saw a usability lab.
Most options are in because for us weak developers it's often more easy to
add just another option than to make a reasonable decision. We rather escape
the responsibility.
When I went through all the menu tree while doing the voice feature I
coudn't believe
a) what a lot of stuff is there, about which I can barely imagine that
anybody will set those, and
b) to how many levels you can set it (a simplification would be to just have
a numeric value).
Most of it I immediately forgot again, but I made a mental note about that
one day I'd like to summarize it and start a discussion about a clearance.

Some value-rich b) examples I just looked up again:
- 18 different values for peak meter hold time, 25 for clip hold
- 19 values for backlight timeout
- 16 values for fast forward / rewind acceleration
Probably quite often something like low/medium/high would be enough, imho.

Examples for a) are harder to look up, I'm too lazy right now.

Hope I haven't made myself too unpopular,
Jörg

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Received on 2004-05-06