Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:10:38 -0800, Darren New wrote:
> 
>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> Perhaps, but I do agree with Chambers on this one - how many times have
>>> we seen:
>> Sure. That's a little different from "Hey, I'm about to ask you to enter
>> the root password now, because I need that to do what you asked, OK?" 
>> It's not asking multiple times. It's telling you it got an error which
>> it might be able to work around if it asks for the password.
>>
>> It's the same as saying
>> % rm xyz
>> Permission denied
>> % sudo rm xyz
>> Password:
> 
> I think that's a little different than the scenario that was discussed, 
> though - "I'm going to ask you for permission, OK?", followed by "I'm 
> asking you for permission" is a little confusing.

I suppose. It's the same sequence of events as the Unix mechanism, except 
the Unix mechanism doesn't give you the same kind of prompt. It makes you 
start over, instead.

> It would be better for the second prompt to just explain about it rather 
> than have an additional prompt.

Maybe. On the other hand, this way they can make the code small and clean, 
without having (perhaps) a problem with getting to the help file and so on. 
I.e., if you made it so the prompt could tell you everything you needed to 
know, it might wind up needing things that only the unprivileged session can 
get to anyway.

I'm not saying it's the best way to do it. I'm just saying it's not as bad 
as people make it out to be, because such a warning is actually more 
consistent than randomly popping up a box asking for the admin password.

> The better design would be for the prompt to tell you at the time it 
> comes up, not to warn you "I'm going to prompt you in a second for 
> permission for this".

Why would that be better?  I think I've already explained why the two-prompt 
is better. I think your mechanism is only better if you're a nerd and you 
already know when you're doing something that's going to trigger the prompt.

Explain to someone who doesn't understand computers how to tell when it's OK 
to answer yes to the prompt.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   My fortune cookie said, "You will soon be
   unable to read this, even at arm's length."

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