CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2007/wiki2 9 NT

Principle of Least Astonishment. Write a guide to the Web pages on the Principle of Least Astonishment. Which should the reader look at for easy-to-understand examples? Which give a feel for where the principle should be used? Is this principle present in fields other than programming? Is the term used consistently in other disciplines

What is 'Principle of Least Astonishment'

Principle of Least Astonishment, as its name suggests, states that in case of an ambiguity or a conflict in the system, the behavior of the system should be the one which will least surprise the user. In other words, principle of least astonishment asserts that the system will not cause any astonishment, or cause the least astonishment for the users by making the system as consistent and predictable -therefore usable- as possible. In computer science, this principle has a wide range of usage in topics such as human-computer interaction, user-interface design, programming language design, and programming. This principle is used in various disciples as well as computer science which are mentioned later in this wiki. After this brief information about the principle of least astonishment, now we are going to talk more about the sources found online about this topic and how well they analyze it.

Examples

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Least Astonishment in Other Disciplines

Examples

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Refrences

• "Applying the Rule of Least Surprise" from The Art of Unix Programming by E.S. Raymond

External links

• "Applying the Rule of Least Surprise" from The Art of Unix Programming by E.S. Raymond