[sword-devel] More Splashes

[Trevor Jenkins]

On Thu, 25 Oct 2001, David Trotz <dtrotzjr@arilion.com> wrote:

> > "Why have a splash screen at all?!!!" Whenever I see a splash screen on a
> > Apple Mac or a Windows PC I think --- bloated code.
>
> Trevor although you are entitled to your opinion, I think there is something
> you might of forgotten, and that is the end user.

Actually I AM arguing for the end-user! That a program takes ages to load
and therefore the user needs to be entertained is not an end-user
requirement. In general it's a cover-up for shoddy coding---not that I'm
suggesting that any code within Sword is shoddy.

> Although most of us here
> are more "advanced" and technical users of our computers and we know the
> program is loading when we click on it and some believe that splash screens
> are for sissies the truth is users like things like splash screens. It helps
> them to see that something is happening while the program is loading.

Actually a better technical solution (and one which the end-users would
really embrace) is to have the program load instantly. To be there ready
for use milliseconds after they click and icon or press return.

> If
> anything irks me it is the fact that developers forget the end user and make
> programs unintuitive and very UGLY. If we write software for them we need to
> cater it to them as well.

I agree. Too many products out there that flagrantly break the GUI
conventions simply because the programmers want to.

> > I would rather that time spent creating splash screens was given over to
> > optimising the code, particularly to delaying initialisation until such
> > time as the functionality is requested.
>
> If one person was working on everything I could see your point but it isn't
> that way. The one who is making the splash screen is not skilled in C++ and
> felt this was a very good way to become involved and contribute. So how is
> development time being used up? Plus the coding time to add a splash screen
> took me ten minutes.
>
> I do want to welcome you to join us in our efforts and help "optimize" our
> code so we can avoid that "code bloat" and make that splash screen only last
> a split second, now that would be cool.

Of course, the ultimate optimisation would be such that the splash screen
is no longer needed.

Regards, Trevor

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