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The Art of Unix Programming
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Unix Programming - Basics of the Unix Philosophy - Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do

Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do theleast surprising thing.

(This is also widely known as the Principle of Least Astonishment.)

The easiest programs to use are those that demand the least new learning from the user — or, to put it another way, the easiest programs to use are those that most effectively connect to the user's pre-existing knowledge.

Therefore, avoid gratuitous novelty and excessive cleverness in interface design. If you're writing a calculator program, ‘+’ should always mean addition! When designing an interface, model it on the interfaces of functionally similar or analogous programs with which your users are likely to be familiar.

Pay attention to your expected audience. They may be end users, they may be other programmers, or they may be system administrators. What is least surprising can differ among these groups.

Pay attention to tradition. The Unix world has rather well-developed conventions about things like the format of configuration and run-control files, command-line switches, and the like. These traditions exist for a good reason: to tame the learning curve. Learn and use them.

(We'll cover many of these traditions in Chapter5 and Chapter10.)

The flip side of the Rule of Least Surprise is to avoid making things superficially similar but really a little bit different. This is extremely treacherous because the seeming familiarity raises false expectations. It's often better to make things distinctly different than to make them almost the same.

-- Henry Spencer

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The Art of Unix Programming
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