| Re: preg_match() oddities and question [message #176139 is a reply to message #176138] |
Fri, 25 November 2011 15:34   |
Sandman
Messages: 32
Registered: August 2011
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In article <1438797(dot)UceJUlZ0hu(at)PointedEars(dot)de>,
Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars(at)web(dot)de> wrote:
>> You have monitored swedish address search terms for fourteen years? We
>> should compare notes.
>
> You are missing the point.
I disagree. :)
> The kind of structured data that you need to
> enter in a form does not matter. Using cursor keys to move the text cursor
> between delimiters in a running text always causes has more accessibility
> and usability problems, and consequently information processing problems,
> than tabbing (or otherwise moving the focus) from one control to another.
Whatever gave you the idea that I am proposing a solution where the
user would have to "use cursor keys to move the text cursor between
delimiter in a running text"? I literally have no idea what you are
talking about, and it has absolutely nothing to do with this thread.
>>> There are basic accessibility guidelines that no amount of
>>> development experience can substitute (although studying usability,
>>> as I did, can help). Many of which must be followed per
>>> legislation in some countries.
>>
>> This.. has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
>
> You are just not seeing how much it has to do with the topic at hand.
And you seem to be failing to explain how it does :)
> Changing the way people put in data towards one that is *actually* easier
> for them solves, at least, three problems at once, including the one that
> you have been asking about.
Adding form fields to make it more cumbersome for them to search for
their address, however, does not.
My *experience* (i.e. not guessing, but rather - having done it
exactly the way you propose) tells me that adding form fields to this
situation adds more illegal search terms. Users tend to make more
mistakes the more details you expect them to provide. Users often
entered "X", "?" or "-" in the letter search field, or tried to type
"none". Most of the time, however, they continued to type their entire
address in the first field and then hit return.
When you find yourself having to educate or expect the user to provide
data in a specific way is when you fail as a software engineer. You
have to make it as easy as possible for them to search for their
address - and the thing you're dealing with here is *Google*. People
know how to Google, they Google whatever shit they can and Google just
always manages to figure out pretty much exactly what they need - with
one input field. That's the level your visitors are on.
They shouldn't have to read labels or instructions to search for their
address. Also the meaning of the street letter may be different
depending on what kind of property you live in and whether your'e a
company or a private person. All that has to be explained for these
users, and my experience (i.e. actual facts provided by years and
years on monitoring exactly this) shows me that this is not the
correct way to deal with input data.
You are free to disagree all you want, and perhaps visitors to your
applications and your digested search term analysis show you something
else, but mine does not. When I wrote the OP and provided the examples
it wasn't something out of the blue.
>>>> When I say it's inconvenient for the end user, it's not something I
>>>> make up on the spot to be obnoxious.
>>> Nevertheless, your logic is flawed.
>>
>> Well, as long as you're merely saying that instead of actually, you
>> know, substantiate that opinion, I have no idea what you expect me
>> to do with it.
>>
>> Words are easy :)
>
> This is about as much as I will discuss this here because your *actual*
> problem has nothing to do with PHP, and little to do with Regular
> Expressions.
If you saw my followup to my OP you may have seen that I found the
solution elsewhere and that it indeed was solved using PHp and regular
expressions - just as I knew it could be :)
--
Sandman[.net]
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