Help Button


ashdjones

o_O
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
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I have a Cybiko, and the single nicest feature about the machine is a handy button marked '?'. When you press it you get a break-down of the keys required for whatever part of a program you are on, and some general pointers for usage.

Another feature I really like is the splash page for each program which gives you a quick rundown of what it's about.

I know it's only a small feature, but it really improves the user experience. I don't think readme files work too well on a handheld.
 
sounds like a good idea, but up to the individual devs to implement such a system. I can imagine many programs will offer a help page when you press, for example, F1.
 
If reading the included documentation is too much to ask, then Pandora may not be the right device for you :P
 
mrsnature said:
sounds like a good idea, but up to the individual devs to implement such a system. I can imagine many programs will offer a help page when you press, for example, F1.
Yeah but my point is, with the standardisation on the Cybiko it's so much better to use. You can pretty much always rely on it.

Chip said:
If reading the included documentation is too much to ask, then Pandora may not be the right device for you :P
Well first of all, from all the comments I've read by the developers the idea is to make the interface easy to use and consistent. Just because I can open a text editor on the pandora, browse to the correct folder, open the readme file, scroll down to the appropriate part and find out what I need to know... doesn't mean it's the best way. Plus, it's easy to forget the key combinations for every peice of homewbrew you have.

Symbian has a nice built in help system too, but it's not forced as standard on other apps.

Standardisation of this stuff is good thing!
 
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F1 has been the standard for help functions on anything with a keyboard for as long as I can remember (it was the standard back on my first 386, and it worked on my school's BBC Micros as well). It would presumably make sense to stick with that, unless there are good reasons not to.

If the menu button works as speculated (i.e. brings up the system menu whilst leaving the current program working, although possibly suspended), then it might make sense to fix the F1 key to do something similar - say, pausing the program and diplaying the readme file for it. Or some other help-related function - I imagine it might be regulateable in metadata, or a help script file coming with programs that wanted fancy manuals.
 
ashdjones said:
Yeah but my point is, with the standardisation on the Cybiko it's so much better to use. You can pretty much always rely on it.

my point is, who's enforcing this standardisation? Even if there was a special help button on the pandora, it would still be up to a dev to implement it. (considers volume buttons on the gp2x...)
 
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Sphinxter said:
The use of by windows does not a standard make except in the minds of a few fanboys.
If you're referring to the comment of F1 being such a standard, then it's not the use of by windows that does it. Rather, it's that back when I used a BBC Micro, pressing F1 often brought up a help dialogue. The same was true of almost every program I used in DOS. In other words: it *seriously* predates Windows, whether or not it is a standard over the entire industry.
 
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Tobriand said:
Sphinxter said:
The use of by windows does not a standard make except in the minds of a few fanboys.
If you're referring to the comment of F1 being such a standard, then it's not the use of by windows that does it. Rather, it's that back when I used a BBC Micro, pressing F1 often brought up a help dialogue. The same was true of almost every program I used in DOS. In other words: it *seriously* predates Windows, whether or not it is a standard over the entire industry.


The birth of DOS is far from being the epoch of operating systems, at least half a dozen predate it. Usage by DOS does not make a standard either.
 
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Sphinxter said:
The use of by windows does not a standard make except in the minds of a few fanboys.
Sphinxter said:
Usage by DOS does not make a standard either.
maybe, maybe not, but regardless, the usage by thousands upon thousands of programs across many operating systems and platforms does.
 
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Sphinxter said:
The birth of DOS is far from being the epoch of operating systems, at least half a dozen predate it. Usage by DOS does not make a standard either.
The fact that the staggering majority of desktop PCs for the last 15 years have run DOS / Windows does make it something of a standard. Love it or hate it, >80% market share pretty much defines "standard".
 
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sindbad said:
It's more like: What would your mom expect the help key to be?
The "?" button?

Actually, my mum would probably try typing in help and seeing if anything happened. But she is extraordinarily computer illiterate (one of those people who presses the on button, then gets scared because the computer is making noise).
 
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sindbad said:
It's more like: What would your mom expect the help key to be?
She wouldn't. Up until about 18 months ago, the "help button" was the speed dial button for my cell phone. After I broke down and bought her a Mac the tech support calls went away :D
 
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"Help"-Button? Every program can bind this anywhere.

I think, what the Pandora needs is a real "ANY"-Key! :lol: (We could use this as FN key)
Who also wants a ANY key? ;)
 
The button could be labelled "HELP!!!11onekthx" and used to fire distress flares concealed in the lid of the Pandora. A crack team of Pandora techs well versed in the long lost art of R(ing)TFM would then parachute in to offer assistance in locating the elusive, and apparently confusingly, named "README.TXT" file.
 
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