jana said:
>   Well, bowerbird,
>   You're not following the rules, you know?

oh, a wiseacre, eh?

well, jana, you're in luck, because
i just happen to _like_ a wiseacre.

so there...             :+)

***

>   You got your feedback, so now
>   go ahead and improve the program.

ok, just so we get this all straight,
and we understand each other,
i'm not just here taking orders...

i'm not an employee.  i'm not a slave.

this is a collaboration.  so if you've got
something useful to say, i am all ears...

but i will be the judge of that, just like
you will be the judge of whether what
_i_ have said is useful to you and yours.

i welcome your suggestions.  but that is
exactly what they are -- _suggestions_...

just so we get it straight, and understand.

***

>   Right now I'm not interested in
>   a full-fledged interface
>   with "roughly 35 variables",
>   because we can't even change
>   35 different things yet.

ok, sounds fair.  but that's what this will become,
eventually, and we don't want to paint ourselves
into a corner on the way to getting there, do we?

but don't worry.  i won't let you do that to us, ok?

so just keep giving your feedback and suggestions.

and i'll act on those that won't paint us into a corner.


>   Though, personally, I'd say no-one will complain
>   about proper dashes and quotation marks
>   if they're done correctly

except we've already lodged a complaint, jana.

travis pointed out that those characters can cause
accessibility problems for people using screen-readers.

but no problem.  we'll make it an option.  i have no wish
to impose curly-quotes on someone who doesn't want 'em.
no matter what you or anyone else might say is "correct"...


>   It's just a tiny few things so far, so it can't be
>   that hard to build a proper user interface for them.
>   Why not do it right from the start?

because it will be many more than "a tiny few things"
in the long run, and if you aren't preparing for that now,
you will have to re-do things, and i'm not gonna do that.
once you specify something, i'm not going to undo it later.
so you might want to have a sense of the gestalt going in...


>   Oh, and for some reason your interface
>   looks like this for me currently:

that's because you made a change to the text,
so it's making it impossible for you to continue
until you have saved that change.  just hit "save"
and things will return to the way they were before.

i will add an "abort changes" button down the line,
but it doesn't hurt to save your changes for now...
each save creates a new file, so you can revert back.
(at least you will be able to do so, once i code that.)


>   And here's the current list of things
>   I've asked for that you haven't done yet,
>   apart from the user interface suggestions:
>   * links from the table of contents to the chapters
>   * letting the user choose background and foreground colours
>   * letting the user choose the font to use
>   * jumping to the right spot in a chapter after a search

suggestions #2 and #3 are on the list for later coding.
(but #3 is a bit ambiguous.  where is the font "used"?)

i doubt i will program #1.  use the pop-up menu instead.
(but, of course, in the conversions, the toc will be active.)

as for #4, i fail to see a need for that in a conversion tool,
which is what this app is, at least for the time being, so if
you can give some justification for that, i will consider it...

oh, and keep it up, wiseacre.  i like a wiseacre...        :+)

-bowerbird