Re: recommended attribute use in hierarchies?

> On Feb 6, 2017, at 01:07, Olaf Drümmer <olaf.lists@druemmer.com> wrote:
> 
> So - equal access not a goal?  Shouldn't every aspect be accessible?
> (and of course any user could/should be able to set up his/her tooling
> to only present some of those aspects...)

Ideally, users should be able to configure their readers to show any
desired subset of the available information.  However, in the world of
closed source software, users are prevented from selecting options that
the software authors failed to include.  Even in an open source app,
modifying and rebuilding the code may be beyond the user's limits of
skill and/or patience.  So, the default settings and easily available
options will constrain the available options for most users.

In the case of list items, several aspects of formatting (e.g., the
shape and color of the bullet, the amount of indentation) are used to
convey the level of the item.  However, the level is the key piece of
semantic and structural information.  So, I'd present that, by default.

-r

 -- 
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm           Rich Morin           rdm@cfcl.com
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume    San Bruno, CA, USA   +1 650-873-7841

Software system design, development, and documentation

Received on Monday, 6 February 2017 17:11:12 UTC