Re: Word-a-Day: capplet, preference tool

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Sat, 2008-04-12 at 10:43 -0300, Leonardo Fontenelle wrote:
> Em Sex, 2008-04-11 às 14:41 -0500, Shaun McCance escreveu:
> > Revised proposal
> > ======================================================
> > capplet
> > ======================================================
> > preferences window
> > ======================================================
> > settings window
> > ======================================================
> 
> Maybe we should have a "bonus round" here, too.
> 
> When should we use "dialog", and when should we use "window"?

I was just thinking about that last night.  My first
inclination was to use "preferences window" for the
global ones, but "preferences dialog" for the things
you get from inside an application.  Nautilus, of
course, has to be difficult. :)

We could call them all windows, or call them all
dialogs.  Neither Apple nor Microsoft has anything
useful here.  Here's Apple's entry on "preferences":

  preferences
  When discussing System Preferences (the Mac OS X application),
  you can shorten the name of each set of system preferences to
  [Name] preferences (note lowercase preferences), as in Universal
  Access preferences. When discussing preferences for any application,
  use lowercase for preferences.

    Use the Sound pane of System Preferences to choose an alert sound.
    Use Sound preferences to change volume settings.
    Use the Sharing pane of iTunes preferences to share your music  
      library.

But they don't recommend a generic word.

Note that Microsoft says never to use "dialog" alone,
but to use "dialog box" instead.  I'm beginning to
think Microsoft's recommendations are as old as ours.

--
Shaun