Java Glossary : About box
Last updated 2004-06-28 by Roedy
Green ©1996-2004 Canadian Mind Products
Java definitions: 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Glossary : A words : About box.
- About box
- An About box is a help window that you pop up to tell you about a
program. One of my pet peeves are About boxes that tell you nothing about
what the program is for, just the version number.
Here is what a proper About box should contain:
-
Program name, e.g. CyberView Plus.
-
Name of the person or company who wrote the program.
-
logo.
-
Program version e.g. 1.3 build 234. Don't leave out
the build. It can be very useful in tracking bugs.
-
purpose, a one or two lines on what is this program for? e.g. word
processor, XML verifier, shows
you how to write Java code to do conversions, let's
you view JPG, GIF and PNG image files.
This information is for someone who stumbles onto the program and wonders what
it is, should he keep it?, who might it belong to? Use the most non-technical
language possible to describe the program.
-
status, e.g. unregistered shareware, registered
shareware, freeware, commercial,
company confidential.
-
release date e.g. 2004-05-17. This is far more
useful to the user than the version for determining just how fresh his software
is.
-
copyright e.g. copyright (c) 1996-2004.
-
masterSite URL, where to find the most up-to-date *.zip
or *.jnlp, e.g. http://mindprod.com/products.html#CONVERTER
-
Company contact information possibly including mailing address, phone, email
address and website. Customers will want to contact you about upgrades,
replacement, bugs etc. Don't hide on them. Give multiple avenues. All this
information could change and you want to give the customer as many clues as
possible to find you.
