How to delete? How do you want to delete?
Posted on January 24, 2004
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 39 views |
Over on inessential.com Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire, has been asking some interesting questions about bits of Mac UI development in an attempt to find a semi-standard, ‘best way’ to do implement certain features.
I’ve got one that consistently bugs me in other applications and that, much to my horror, I’ve realised I don’t implement in any consistent sort of way in my apps and utilities: deleting things. Not text, which disappears with a whack of the Delete key, but things like email messages, news feed subscriptions, etc.
Well-behaved applications will always present you with a dialog box asking you if you’re sure you want to delete the thing you’re trying to delete (the better behaved even provide an option to never see this dialog again, and the best-behaved let you undo the delete seamlessly). However there appears to be no consensus between whether an item should be deleted just by hitting the Delete key or by hitting Command-Delete (if your app uses some other combination, you’ve got bigger things to worry about).
For instance:
Mail.app: Delete or Command-Delete.
NetNewsWire: Command-Delete Delete with dialog
I used to think that just the Delete key was best, now I’m coming to believe that developers should implement both. Or rather, if I hit the delete key I shouldn’t be punished for also having the Command key down at the same time.
Thoughts? Does anyone else care?
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