Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 09:39:51 -0600 From: Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov> To: jkh@time.cdrom.com, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Don't hit.. Message-ID: <199606111539.PAA10507@gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov>
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> Here's a really warped and twisted idea I just got.. You know how > most commercial software installers take advantage of the "dead time" > during system installation to give the user lots of handy tips on > the kinds of things they might encounter or how to send off a warranty > registration card, etc and so forth? Well. Erm.. Deja vu! I did the exact same thing for our advanced hydrometeorological display system. It takes a long time to initialize, so I whipped up some Tcl/Tk code to show the NOAA and FSL logos, a progress indicator, and randomly chosen handy tips. It was a way to let forecasters know about features they might not've realized existed. EVERYONE HATED IT! :-( The main reason was that after the third crash and restart, the last thing a forecaster wanted was a perky, helpful, and annoying set of tips scrolling by---especially when he's trying to get a tornado warning out to the public. Of course, FreeBSD's situation is different, and a set of tips might actually help out in some cases. But consider all the possible mindsets a user might be in during an install ... ``Damn, I misconfigured the port address! Damn, I didn't leave enough space for /usr/games! Damn, it panicked! Damn, these tips are annoying!'' -- Sean Kelly NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory kelly@fsl.noaa.gov Boulder Colorado USA http://www-sdd.fsl.noaa.gov/~kelly/
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