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Re: Deprecated (was When is it too much information?)
Subject:Re: Deprecated (was When is it too much information?) From:Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> To:Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net> Date:Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:04:04 -0800
On Wednesday, February 20, 2013, Lauren wrote:
> On 2/20/2013 10:43 PM, Tony Chung wrote:
>
>> Deprecation is necessary for advancement. But it doesn't mean no longer
>> used.
>>
>
> I didn't say "no longer used," I mentioned that "not used." "Not used"
> leaves open the options of using a feature although it is not used in the
> current application, using the feature in the future, or deleting the
> feature in later releases.
Then deprecated doesn't mean "not used" either. It means, "once used, been
superseded by better ways, your old way still works, please upgrade to the
new method ASAP or bad stuff is gonna happen."
Wouldn't it be simple to say, "this part of the UI is not used" or it "is
> not used by the user"? Saying that the text is deprecated would be very
> confusing, saying that part of the UI is deprecated may be misleading. The
> information is gone but the user's actions do not change because of the
> change.
Yes. Paul (I thought his name was Yehoshua) asked if a checkbox that used
to be on a screen needs to be documented. That doesn't belong in a
deprecated features or not used section. Most likely that was already
discussed to death under that thread.
Bottom line is, if the feature was not important, don't say anything in the
UI documentation. Mention it in the release notes or "changes from earlier
versions". However, if I remember correctly, this feature was set in a way
that "the user doesn't have to do anything."
That only opened up more questions: "I don't have to do anything? Am I
missing something? What should I be doing? In that case a better
instruction would be to say "the settings for this feature are managed <in
another location>"
But this is the deprecated thread, whose value is depreciating the more
tired I get.
-Tony
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