New Project III

Drew came back with:-

I hear what you're saying about rewriting an application and the time it takes. Accurately estimating the time required for such an undertaking. Even if you double an original estimate, with feature creep and unexpected problems of all sorts you can still end up slipping the release date several times.

Good luck with it and if you post your progress updates, I'll read them with interest.

Meanwhile, I've just done a prototype form where I can switch between English and Spanish (or French, German or Italian) labels. Oh yes, we're all good European Comrades now (NOT)!

Sistema Imprenta anybody?

Yes ... it all takes forever. And users lose interest, patience, and all the rest. Meanwhile, it's a lonely pursuit, best suited to English summers (yes, it's raining again).

And a million little decisions to be made along the way. Like:- would a Spanish-speaking user be au fait with a push-button marked Code Page, or should we try to squeeze in Código pagina? I went for simply Código as there was no space for anything else ... then moved on.*

The real problem is that of the width of field labels and push-buttons. Whilst they may be OK for (sometimes terse) captions in English, they're often not wide enough ... especially for those er, rather long, German words! If we're not careful, what were previously quite nicely crafted forms can end up looking like a Hund's Frühstück!

* I could, of course, have equally well have mentioned Codice pagina abbreviated to Codice ... but anyway, what the Heck do I know about any of that stuff? Way back in school, when the clever (but spotty, I seem to recall) dudes were taking French, s'il vous plaît, I was generally to be found chiseling happily away in the woodwork shop!