[rfc][icedtea-web][itweb-settings] Improve Icedtea-Web cache disk space

[Jacob Wisor]

On 09/03/2014 at 08:00 PM, Jie Kang wrote:
> In regards to UI design philosophy and KISS (keep it simple stupid), I think we can argue over it all day long but rather than point to basic design guidelines or philosophies (since it all comes down to opinion),

No, it does not. Scientific studies in social sciences on human-machine 
interaction have clearly revealed two decades ago already what the basic design 
principles of UIs should be. And, since science is all about facts and not 
opinions, I do not think we should open this discussion here.

The problem I see here, is that often people recite or refer to scientific 
results without actually having read them or only picking out one issue that 
they remember and then filling in the missing parts by resorting to their guts. 
This is not how professional work is done. Results on scientific studies are not 
gut feelings but facts. Getting an interpretation on studies right is a 
different thing. However, time (like 20 years ago) has proven that social 
sciences on human-machine interaction have gotten the interpretation of their 
studies quite right, thus the same applies to the UI design guidelines which in 
turn are based on those interpretations. So, long story short, in this case the 
design should be disabling/enabling.

> I think there are some simple rules that we can state and agree on such as, but not limited to:

Yes, we may agree, but as I have already mentioned, it is not about opinion or 
consensus but about scientific facts. ;-) Of course, anyone is still entitled to 
their opinion on scientific facts, but then... usually those people have some 
kind of disorders or are just lunatics. :-D

> UI must work : There are a set of actions that can be performed and the UI must support these actions.
> UI must be simple : There are a set of actions that must be supported and the UI should support said actions with minimal effort on the part of the developer in creating this support, and on the user in accessing these actions.
>
> When it comes to minimal effort for the user, hiding/showing versus disabling to me is a neutral difference. It is not harder for the user to perform all actions when UI is shown/hidden based on when an action can be performed, but it is also not harder for the user to perform all actions when the UI is disabled/enabled based on when an action can be performed. However I think that hidden UI is more difficult for a user to learn about than disabled UI which is why I prefer enabling/disabling if necessary.

Jacob