JShell UX: a thought -- intro mode

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On 08/05/2015 05:52 PM, Robert Field wrote:
> We have a tension in the design of the tool UX between guiding a new user to understand what the tool is doing and being free enough of noisy chatter that an on-going user will not be frustrated.  The tool has options for the setting of verbosity, but the expectation is that these would not be routinely used.
>
> If we assume, per Brian’s suggestion, that the verbose mode is a descriptive addendum to the concise form, then an intro mode becomes an option.
>
> The idea being that the tool would start out in intro (verbose) mode and that after a certain number of interactions it would switch to to concise mode.  At that point a message would be printed something like:  Leaving intro mode now giving concise feedback — for more information type:  /help intro
>
> /help intro — would give introductory use information, point to general help, and include information on setting and saving the feedback mode.
>
> At start-up, when in intro mode, after the banner, it would print something like: Starting in intro mode — for more information type:  /help intro
>
> The tool keeps context between sessions (currently just the history) the intro interaction count would be stored between sessions.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> -Robert
>

I like the idea of an intro mode, but I'm not so sure about changing 
automatically partway through a session.  How about making the decision 
once, when the session is started, and giving a message informing the 
user of the current mode (which may be different from the previous time) 
and how to select the mode.

-- Jon