papercuts-ninja team mailing list archive

[Chris Wilson <notgary@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey,

I've been thinking a lot lately (through my job) about adding options to
software. Personally, I try to avoid it, both at work and in my personal
projects, as feel they get in the way of the user being able to understand
how your app works, as well as adding more routes through the code that
need to be maintained.

There's a great article
here<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000059.html>
on
the subject.

This <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/264816> bug
report got me thinking about how this applies to paper cuts. Adding an
option to an app may sound like an easy fix that satisfies the largest
number of people, but is it really going to satisfy more people then the
app would if it weren't added? Wouldn't it be a better solution to design a
work flow that didn't require an added option? Is there really a demand for
these options?

My question to you is: should requests to add options to app be considered
paper cuts? Personally I think they shouldn't, and we should instead look
at the underlying problem that got the person asking for the option in the
first place. I think we should also remember that the paper cuts project
exists to fix the issues affecting the *majority of average users, *and a
lot of options that are requested will only be of any real interest to a
minority of users, not to mention the fact that average users don't usually
customise their computer in the first place.

What are people's thoughts in this?

Chris