Re: Principle of least surprise

On 06/02/2019 22:33, Piet van Oostrum wrote:
> Wols Lists wrote:
>
>   > On 06/02/19 16:08, Piet van Oostrum wrote:
>   > > Wol's lists<antlists@youngman.org.uk>  writes:
>   > >
>   > >> Dunno whether this is a bug or a design decision or what, but it's a
>   > >> pretty nasty breach of the principle ...
>   > >>
>   > >> Why, when I click on a cell, does calc NOT select the clicked cell?
>   > >>
>   > >> Okay, I know the answer - it's a hyperlink. BUT.
>   > >>
>   > >> I was editing a csv, I've got a column of email addresses, and some of
>   > >> them have been hyperlinked, some of them haven't. I don't want
>   > >> hyperlinks, I didn't ask for hyperlinks, and I can't see any way of
>   > >> easily removing them!
>   > >>
>   > > Format > Clear Direct Formatting (Ctrl-M on my Mac).
>   > >
>   > But clicking on the cell doesn't select it so <ctrl>M doesn't work!:-)
>   >
>
> You could click in a nearby cell and move to it with the arrows.

Sorry, I don't know whether it's my poor English or that you aren't a 
native speaker, but you seem to be completely missing my main point.

THE NEED FOR A WORK-AROUND INDICATES THE EXISTENCE OF A MAJOR UI FUCK-UP!

Clicking in a cell to select it is such a basic piece of spreadsheet 
functionality, that for it to not work is a major problem. Things like 
that should work ONE HUNDRED percent of the time, not ninety-nine 
percent. Any safety guy will tell you that something that nearly always 
works is actually far more dangerous than something that keeps going wrong.

Oh - and I've just played with the same spreadsheet in Excel. That fucks 
it up too, just not quite so dangerously. It selects the cell, which is 
good, but launches the link at the same time. So at least you get a 
clear visual surprise, unlike Calc which just silently fails to work as 
expected ...

Cheers,

Wol