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Article #4572

Re: press any key

#4572
From: k... Ken Yap
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 1990 03:55
22 lines
1197 bytes
I once worked on a radioimmunoassay program and there was this menu
with 5 choices plus "quit". I decided that I would take anything
outside 1 to 5 as quit and the menu read:

	1. ...
	...
	Anything else: quit

The project manager complained that this was confusing and suggested that I
just make it say:

	6. Quit

He wasn't asking me to change the code, just the prompt.

I think he was right. People get confused by too many choices.  I
suspect all these stories about not finding the ANY key would be
avoided if the instructions just said:

	Press space bar to continue

Now if the user doesn't know what the space bar is, then you have a problem.
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Message-ID: <1990Sep21.035517.1579@csis.dit.csiro.au>
Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!bu.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!csc.anu.oz.au!csis!ken

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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!bu.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!csc.anu.oz.au!csis!ken
From: k...@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ken Yap)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: press any key
Message-ID: <1990Sep21.035517.1579@csis.dit.csiro.au>
Date: 21 Sep 90 03:55:17 GMT
Organization: CSIRO Division of Information Technology
Lines: 22
Posted: Fri Sep 21 04:55:17 1990
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