--- In Firebird-Architect@yahoogroups.com, "Dimitry Sibiryakov"
<aafemt@...> wrote:

> How long do you read firebird support mail list? I have wxactly
> contrary impression: almost nobody read documentation.

I consider e-mails to be documentation. Usability is about knowing how
to do things. An end-user can learn things by:

- Reading it in a separate document (e-mails, websites etc.)
- Reading it in the online help system (if it has a UI)
- Guessing it (usually not the best thing to rely on)
- Being told by somebody else (superusers, coworkers etc.)
etc.

If you want an engine selection to be an unavoidable choice, that the
end-user has to make, without a default and without a suggested
engine, the user will need advice in some other way, because guessing
is not good.

A very important part of usability is to ensure, that end-users can
use the software without learning a lot. But it is also important,
that the user can improve his/her skills along the way, and it is very
good if this can be done without having to ask for tuition.

If the system has a default engine, and that you can only get the
other engines if you do something special, and this special is
documented *somewhere* (like this mailing list), it will work nicely.

Features are not contradictive to usability.

Anyway, my point is mostly that adding an extra storage
semantics/engine or adding a new type of index is basically the same
problem with regard to the enduser.