TONT 43083 为什么要点击『开始』菜单来『关机』?

即日起,尝试不定期翻译《The Old New Thing》的『History』分类下的文章。

自以为『Win故知新』这个分类名想得还不错。

原文地址:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030722-00/?p=43083

Short answer: The same reason you turn the ignition key to shut off your car.

长话短说:跟你需要转动(点火)钥匙来关闭汽车发动机是一个意思。

Long answer: Back in the early days, the taskbar didn’t have a Start button. (In a future history column, you’ll learn that back in the early days, the taskbar wasn’t called the taskbar.)

详细一些:早先,任务栏上并没有什么『开始』按钮。(在以后的文章里你会了解到,更早些时候,任务栏也不叫『任务栏』。)

Instead of the Start button, there were three buttons in the lower left corner. One was the “System” button (icon: the Windows flag), one was the “Find” button (icon: an eyeball), and the third was the “Help” button (icon: a question mark). “Find” and “Help” are self-explanatory. The “System” button gave you this menu:

(屏幕的)左下角原本是有三个按钮——而不是(一个)『开始』按钮。一个叫『系统』(图标为Windows旗帜),一个叫『查找』(图标是一只眼睛),还有一个叫『帮助』(图标是一个问号)。『查找』和『帮助』的用途不言自明,『系统』按钮点击后会弹出这么一个菜单:

Run…(运行…)
Task List…(任务列表…)
Arrange Desktop Icons(排列桌面图标)
Arrange Windows >(排列窗口 >)
Shutdown Windows(关闭Windows)
(“Arrange Windows” gave you options like “Cascade”, “Tile Horizontally”, that sort of thing.)
(『排列窗口』下面还有『层叠』、『垂直排列』之类的选项。)

(译注:这三个按钮的实际样子是:

Of course, over time, the “Find” and “Help” buttons eventually joined the “System” button menu and the System button menu itself gradually turned into the Windows 95 Start menu.

当然,随着时间的推移,『查找』和『帮助』两个按钮最终被合并到了『系统』的菜单中,而『系统』按钮的菜单也慢慢变成了Windows 95的开始菜单。

But one thing kept getting kicked up by usability tests: People booted up the computer and just sat there, unsure what to do next.

然而(在『开始』按钮成为『开始』按钮之前)总有一件事在可用性测试中显现:人们打开电脑,然后就坐在那,不知道接下来应该做什么。

That’s when we decided to label the System button “Start”.

那时起,我们就决定将这个『系统』按钮改叫『开始』了。

It says, “You dummy. Click here.” And it sent our usability numbers through the roof, because all of a sudden, people knew what to click when they wanted to do something.

它包含的意思是,『你个⑨,点这儿。』,这个改动瞬间就将可用性测试的分数拔高了,突然之间,人们就明白想做什么操作时应该点哪儿了。

So why is “Shut down” on the Start menu?

那么,为什么『关机』会放在『开始』菜单里呢?

When we asked people to shut down their computers, they clicked the Start button.

(因为)我们(发现在可用性测试中)让用户关掉电脑时,他们就(径直)去点『开始』按钮了。

Because, after all, when you want to shut down, you have to start somewhere.

毕竟,当你想关机时,你总得有个操作的入口不是。

(Besides, if we also had a “Shut down” button next to the Start button, everybody would be demanding that we get rid of it to save valuable screen real estate.)

(何况,如果我们在开始按钮旁边再放个『关机』,怕是又有不少人会要求我们把它去掉,来尽量留出宝贵的屏幕空间。)

(译注:Windows 95那个年代,人们普遍在用15寸左右的小显示器,分辨率通常也只有640×480,与如今的情况不可同日而语,所以屏幕空间很宝贵)

Comments

  1. 哈哈,这个已经出版成书了:《伟大的产品:Windows进化启示录》

  2. 晓得,我看过那本书(翻译得有点生硬),这里是为了练习做翻译,并不是为了做译文。
    此外那本书并没有涵盖Raymond的所有博文。

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