[racket] changing the default language

From: Greg Hendershott (greghendershott at gmail.com)
Date: Fri Aug 27 16:08:32 EDT 2010

This is very confusing for new users. In my case, IIRC, I wanted to
supply command-line values for debugging, and figured this must be
possible ... but how/where??

Unfortunately it's "doubly hidden" in the UI:
1. The first thing I tried was Preferences. Never would have guessed
to find this under "Choose Language".
2. Even if you somehow knew to look under Choose Language, the options
are hidden by default. The "Show Details"  button doesn't have any
"expand dialog" affordance like being labeled "Show Details >>".  Plus
you might not even click that, because options like command-line args
or compiling with debugging info don't obviously feel (to a new user)
like details of choosing a language.

IMO the solution options are, in decreasing order of preference:
1. Move most of these options to a new tab in Preferences.  (best)
2. Move most of these options to a new command/dialog "Racket |
Execution Options" (and maybe fold "Limit Memory" into that, too?).
3. Just make "Choose Language" an always-expanded dialog.
4. Just change "Show Details" button to "Show Details >>".  (least best, IMHO)

I realize this probably sounds nit-picky. But, some usability issues
are impossible for someone to see when they've lost their virginity
and already know too much about how something is supposed to work. I
think this is a good example, so I wanted to point it out to all you
non-virgins. :)

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 10:33 AM, Norman Gray <norman at astro.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> On 2010 Aug 25, at 15:22, Eli Barzilay wrote:
>
>> * And if you're talking about editing in DrRacket, then the language
>>  dialog has an "Automatic #lang line" that determines the line that
>>  gets inserted into new buffers.
>
> ...which you will see if you press the 'Show Details' button in the dialogue (the details appear not to be shown by default, at least on OS X).
>
> Norman
>
>
> --
> Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
>
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