The Old New Thing

If it's optional, then don't make it mandatory

June 28, 2007 Jun 28, 2007 06/28/07
Raymond Chen
I was filling out an online form, and it gave me the option of providing feedback on the service I had received. The button was marked "optional", but I clicked it anyway because there were one or two things I thought were worthy of mentioning, suggestions on how they could improve the user's experience with the Web site, that sort of thing. ...

Why do DLGC_WANTALLKEYS and DLGC_WANTMESSAGE have the same value?

June 26, 2007 Jun 26, 2007 06/26/07
Raymond Chen
From a purely theoretical point of view, there is only one "want" code you really need: . All the others are just conveniences. For example, returning means "I want this message if it is an arrow key; otherwise, I don't care." It lets you write instead of the more cumbersome (but equivalent) Similarly, is equivalent to returning if ...

There's no point improving the implementation of a bad idea

June 25, 2007 Jun 25, 2007 06/25/07
Raymond Chen
is a bad idea and you shouldn't call it. In the comments, many people proposed changes to the function to improve the implementation. But what's the point? is just a bad idea. There's no point improving the implementation of a bad idea. On the other hand, some people suggested making it clear that is a bad idea by making it worse. While...

Einstein the geographer? A hoax.

June 22, 2007 Jun 22, 2007 06/22/07
Raymond Chen
Perhaps you've seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein: As a young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, while working in the Customs Office, I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as an alternative. Well, it's a fake...

Even advanced users liked the Windows XP Start menu

June 22, 2007 Jun 22, 2007 06/22/07
Raymond Chen
In addition to testing out the Windows XP Start menu on beginners, we asked advanced users (including lots of system administrators) what they thought of it, and the response was still positive. This was kind of surprising, for advanced users tend to be resistant to change. In fact, system administrators like the new Start menu so much ...