Re: [Usability] Mousetweaks usability discussion

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Wed, 2007-10-31 at 16:54 +0000, Calum Benson wrote:
> On 31 Oct 2007, at 13:54, Denis Washington wrote:
> 
> >
> > I have made a mockup that integrates Mousetweaks settings into the  
> > mouse
> > capplet:
> >
> > http://ultimum-projekt.de/mockups/mouse.html
> >
> > I hope I haven't forgotten everything. Comments?
> 
> Tab names need some thought,  but otherwise looks quite neat.  I  
> think you'd ideally want some sort of preview area on the  
> Accessibility tab as well, though, for testing out the two functions  
> there that have a delay slider.
> 
> Also just noticed a couple of points that apply to the existing Mouse  
> capplet:
> 
> - I'd suggest that something like "interval" might be a better term  
> than "timeout" for double-click settings.  I'm not sure my granny  
> would know what a "timeout" was, even if she were still alive :)
> 
> - "Double-click" should only be hyphenated in it's noun form IIRC, so  
> I think "try to double-click" is incorrect.  (I'd check this in the  
> doc styleguide, but the *.gnome.org websites seem to be dead right now.)

Actually, the GDP Style Guide says to use the hyphenated
form for the verb as well:

double-click on
  Definition: To press and release the left mouse button on an item
              twice, in rapid succession.
  Usage:      Normal text rules.
  Example:    To start an application from the desktop, double-click
              on the application launcher.

My initial inclination was to agree with you, but after consulting
with my good friend Lynda, goddess of grammar, I think I've changed
my mind.  In noun form, "double click" is a simple adjective-noun
combination, and doesn't require a hyphen.

In verb form, it could be taken as an adverb-verb combination, but
"double" isn't frequently used as an adverb.  (In all cases I can
think of where it is used as an adverb, it's used in the postfix
position.)  So it's more like we're using a noun phrase as a verb,
something which is very popular in our industry.  And when using
a noun phrase as a verb, one should really hyphenate the phrase.

Then again, the computer industry has created much of its own
terminology to suit its needs.  As various terms and phrases have
become more common, we've adjusted our usage of them to be less
awkward.  So perhaps it's time we just consider "double click"
and "right click" proper compound verbs and ditch the hyphens.

--
Shaun