[fpc-pascal] SysLocale.PriLangID vs Mac OS X localization

[Adriaan van Os]

Michael Van Canneyt wrote:

> I invite you to visit ALL our customers. Most of them don't even
> understand what a folder is. They *really* don't care about the
> rules you mention. Most of them would even be far more happy with
> a plain DOS application.
> 
> As our support staff says:
> The best application has just 1 screen and 1 button: 'Click here',
> which, when clicked, scans the user's brain and does what (s)he wants.
> Some users will even manage to mess that up.

This kind of reasoning is really very sad. Bluntly sad, it says: "Our users are stupid, so our 
software can be stupid too". Again, I find that very sad. I have been writing  software for the Mac 
professionally for over twenty years, but never met a stupid Mac user. The level of experience may 
differ, but good software lets the user experience grow. It makes it a pleasure to use a computer, 
not a frustration.

 From supporting multi-platform software for many many years I also know that the average Mac user 
is more demanding than the typical Windows user. Sometimes, you get away on Windows on with clumsy 
interface design or error messages (that's what they are used to anyway) but a Mac user will 
invariably complain about it to the helpdesk !

If you say "Most of them would even be far more happy with a plain DOS application" that's a pure 
disqualification of the software you offer.

Breaking the rules of the platform is never a good idea. As an example why, many Mac users still 
resent the user-interface of the Mac OS X Finder as compared to the old Mac OS Finder (which was 
better in many ways and still is).

> So: nice theory, but in practice: forget about it, it's not that
> important. We have other problems to worry about.

I you do have other problems to worry about than platform consistency and interface design, that's 
again a disqualification of the software you offer. Platform consistency and interface design is 
where you start when writing software, it's not a gadget hacked into it afterwards.

Regards,

Adriaan van Os