Real Temp - New temp program for Intel Core processors

[IanB]

I like hiding features for the hard core types that actually read all this stuff.

As a programmer, I believe that a clear user interface is the most important thng about a program, since if you don't understand what it's telling you or how to use it easily, then the results it displays can be less than meaningful.

Until you made this alteration, I was very impressed with both your concept and your app. But hiding things rather like Easter eggs just for a bit of fun, so they aren't easily accessible, is plain daft. Sorry.

This program is hard enough for people to understand how it works without concealing layers of information behind invisible buttons, without any sort of UI clue that the feature is there. Putting it in the help file just doesn't cut it, I'm afraid.

[Ace-a-Rue]

As a programmer, I believe that a clear user interface is the most important thng about a program, since if you don't understand what it's telling you or how to use it easily, then the results it displays can be less than meaningful.

Until you made this alteration, I was very impressed with both your concept and your app. But hiding things rather like Easter eggs just for a bit of fun, so they aren't easily accessible, is plain daft. Sorry.

This program is hard enough for people to understand how it works without concealing layers of information behind invisible buttons, without any sort of UI clue that the feature is there. Putting it in the help file just doesn't cut it, I'm afraid.

i am not totally in agreement with your approach to have everything visible.

the way uncle has changed his program to allow adjustments to the individual cores for both idle and TJmax makes his interface a little more uncluttered...

i think the "minimum temperature" category could be excluded since most of us are really not consummed by minimum temperatures, just maximum!.

lets give uncle some kudos for him designing this program and then being open minded to receive input to improve the ergonomics of his program.

we, as a society, are way to critical of others who put their sweat and toil into a project that he or she is trying to make for the betterment of everyone...where is the appreciation factor!

[jas420221]

i am not totally in agreement with your approach to have everything visible.

the way uncle has changed his program to allow adjustments to the individual cores for both idle and TJmax makes his interface a little more uncluttered...

i think the "minimum temperature" category could be excluded since most of us are really not consummed by minimum temperatures, just maximum!.

lets give uncle some kudos for him designing this program and then being open minded to receive input to improve the ergonomics of his program.

we, as a society, are way to critical of others who put their sweat and toil into a project that he or she is trying to make for the betterment of everyone...where is the appreciation factor!

I think he has gotten PLENTY of kudos in this thread. I do not believe that IanB's post warranted this follow up either. We are all making suggestions and he is doing what is best for all of us. I mean, do you want everyone to give unclewebb a reacharound before they make a suggestion???

[Ace-a-Rue]

I do not believe that IanB's post warranted this follow up either.

your opinion...but i disagree with you TOO!

We are all making suggestions and he is doing what is best for all of us.

NO KIDDING!

[TL1000S]

As a programmer, I believe that a clear user interface is the most important thng about a program, since if you don't understand what it's telling you or how to use it easily, then the results it displays can be less than meaningful.

Until you made this alteration, I was very impressed with both your concept and your app. But hiding things rather like Easter eggs just for a bit of fun, so they aren't easily accessible, is plain daft. Sorry.

This program is hard enough for people to understand how it works without concealing layers of information behind invisible buttons, without any sort of UI clue that the feature is there. Putting it in the help file just doesn't cut it, I'm afraid.

"As a programmer.." ??
You are talking about GUI/application design here. Not programming.
Programming is a skill at different levels/different technologies (tools/languages..).
Has really little to do with the layout/design of eg an app like RealTemp.
I am impressed that a *Real* programmer (pun intended) as Unclewebb is able to make a nice looking app as he certainly have to code "low-level".

Apart from the above I agree that a GUI should be intiutive and easy for "novice" users.
But this app is for "Real Geeks".

[IanB]

"As a programmer.." ??
You are talking about GUI/application design here. Not programming.
Programming is a skill at different levels/different technologies (tools/languages..).
Has really little to do with the layout/design of eg an app like RealTemp.

Nonsense, I'm afraid. You are suggesting that the "programmer" just writes the algorithm, the raw code that does the work, then sends it to someone else to wrap a user interface around it. No, the programmer does both in building a GUI app. The algorithm and interface are totally intertwined, not just the "press this and it does that" paradigm but the way the result is reported back to the user. The user interface is more than half the work (and often more than half the code, actually) - if you'd ever built a Windows app from scratch you'd understand that.

Why do you think Microsoft spends millions on user trials to test how people interact with their software and feed that back into the design? Not because they have money to burn... Almost anyone with sufficient programming knowledge can write an app that just "works", the real trick is to take it from something merely functional to something that's easily and intuitively understood by the end user.

Windows is the success it is because of over 15 years of GUI design and improvement, where we all know how to use any new app in minutes because they all work in substantially the same way. An app that breaks those conventions is not going to get the same usage, user satisfaction or recommendations simply because the learning curve to use it is too high, and people may give up before they get to grips with it. Making it "geek-friendly" only would be a suicidal strategy, and why do you believe that only geeks should have access to the important information this app provides?

@ unclewebb. Thanks for listening. Since you aren''t using menus, another way of handling this would be to have a single button on the main interface that takes you to a second "advanced options" dialog. That way you get a perfect separation of action functions (setting calibration, clearing logs etc.) from your current clean display-only UI.

The only other thing I'd suggest is that you could add comments into the INI file directly, so that the number ranges for the various parameters are explained in the file itself for easy reference, rather than having to refer to separate documentation. If you are using GetPrivateProfileString/WritePrivateProfileString then the comments are simply ignored, else they are easily parsed over. The convention for INI comments is a semicolon at the start of the line.