JShell UX: a thought -- intro mode

[Robert Field]

> On Aug 5, 2015, at 6:14 PM, Jonathan Gibbons <jonathan.gibbons at oracle.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 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

So what you are suggesting would look something like:

Welcome to JShell …
Would you like to use intro mode to get more feedback (yes, no, or help)?

Then once they answered “no” on start on subsequent starts it would immediately start in concise mode without the question?
“help” would print the intro information I mentioned.  

???

-Robert