JShell UX: a thought -- intro mode

[Brian Goetz]

I'm OK with a newbie mode -- but I don't like making newbie mode the 
default.  But you can use the "number of interactions" trick to print an 
extra informational message the first few times you are running it, 
which shares the existence of a newbie mode:

$ jshell

WELCOME TO JSHELL, n00B!
FOR FUNZ n00B MODE, TYPEZ /n00bz
FOR BORINGZ TWO-TORREAL, TYPEZ /teachez

jshell>

And then, after running it a few times, stop with the extra prompt.



On 8/5/2015 8:52 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
>