OpenEuphoria

Re: more info on ARF020

• Posted by irvm at ellijay.com Jul 26, 2001
• 370 views

On Thursday 26 July 2001 12:11, gwalters at sc.rr.com wrote:

> All the screens are already layed out (approx 70 of them) in another
> environment and I'm trying to find how this new stuff works so I can then
> 'convert' the screens to some type of sequence so they don't have to be
> constructed one by one...

I expected you to say that.  I've often wished I could 
do something similar. The truth is, it is a 'bad idea'.

One of the common misconceptions is that a procedural program 
can be easily translated into an event-driven windows program, 
and function properly. This is generally not the case. If you try to 
do it anyway, you lose out to those who accept the differences, 
and write programs that *do* use event-driven features to 
their advantage.

People who use Windows (or xWindows, or Mac) programs 
expect, for example, to be able to move on the fly from one task 
to another as needed.  Example:  someone is entering invoices
into the system. No customer record has been created for the next 
invoice. Windows users expect to be able to pop up a screen, enter the 
new customer data, and then contine where they left off on the 
invoice entry screen, without closing the program or creating an 
error condition. Or, perhaps they need to pop up another customer's 
account to look up some info, without cancelling the work they are 
currently doing. 

A second concept that makes translation impractical is that of 
presenting only what information a user needs at the moment.

Take your ARF020 data entry screen, for example.
It would be much easier to use if the customer name, address, 
etc were presented on the screen, and below that three tab items,
each tab of which showed a category of items, only a click away.
Just as an example;

Under Preferences tab:
  Salesman
  Tax info
  Default Shipping info, etc.

Under Terms tab:
  Cust. group
  Price level
  Credit limit
  Pmt terms, etc

Under Account Status tab:
  Last invoice date, amt
  Last pmt date, amt
  YTD sales, etc....

You can see that, by categorizing the displayed data, and presenting 
only that which the user is concerned with at the moment,  you gain
in several ways:

1. Your program is easier to use.
2. Your users are less likely to modify something they didn't intend to 
modify, and you don't have to validate entries that aren't accessible.
3. You have room on the screen for more informative text, which 
again cuts down on errors, as well as calls for help.
4. Your program looks more professional.

BTW, my version would probaby have user-level protection on 
the terms tab, so that only the acctg mgr could change a customer's 
discount, etc.

Now, consider this: It would take about 30 minutes to lay out the 
screen as described above, with tab items, etc. The result would
be a program with a more professional look and feel, and that will 
outweigh the small amount of time invested in designing the new 
screen.  (It's also likely that the errors introduced in porting the existing 
screens will take more time to track down than it would take 
to design new screens in the first place;)

Regards,
Irv