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From: kdmoen@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Doug Moen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Poor Mac Design Philosophy (was blinking apple)
Message-ID: <2052@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: Fri, 16-Oct-87 12:58:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: watcgl.2052
Posted: Fri Oct 16 12:58:20 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Oct-87 09:23:52 EDT
References: <1076@houtz.UUCP> <21205@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <400@sdics.ucsd.EDU> <7342@dartvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: kdmoen@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Doug Moen)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 33
Keywords: Mac design blinking apple

In article <400@sdics.ucsd.EDU> norman@sdics.UUCP (Donald A. Norman) writes:
>>Others patiently explain that this means the alarm clock is ringing:
>>find it and shut it off.  Everyone feels stupid (but they shouldn't --
>>it is a sign of poor design).
>>
>>This is yet another example of how Macintosh design fails to follow
>>its own guidelines.  How should anyone ever know this is an alarm? Yes
>>it is in the manual, but buried. And manuals are unread.

In article <7342@dartvax.UUCP> isle@dartvax.UUCP (Ken Hancock) writes:
)Good grief...what do you want it to do?  If people don't want to read
)manuals, fine...but then don't complain every time you find something
)that you don't know right off the back.  Sheez...I can just see the
)dialog boxes.
)
)      __________________________________________________
)      |  Excuse me, Mr. User...your alarm clock is on. |
)      |________________________________________________|

This sounds like a perfectly reasonable idea.  When the alarm clock
goes off, a small, non-preemptive window pops up in the upper right
corner of the screen saying "It's x o'clock and your alarm is ringing".
Closing the window turns off the alarm clock.
I really don't understand your sarcastic tone.

I hope Apple will consider putting something like this into System 4.2.
It's probably easy to implement in a MultiFinder environment: the
alarm window could be put into the DA Handler layer.
-- 
Doug Moen
University of Waterloo Computer Graphics Lab
UUCP:     {ihnp4,watmath}!watcgl!kdmoen
INTERNET: kdmoen@cgl.waterloo.edu