Chapter 12. File Operations

Notifications

You'd be hard-pressed to write an application without at least one message box. Usually, a program has dozens of message box statements scattered throughout its code. Even though displaying notifications by using MessageBox.Show is common, many developers don't do it correctly. When you display a notification to a user, you're communicating with that person much the same as if you had called the user by phone.

Writing good notification messages is a task with many facets. The simplest aspect determining whether a notification tells the user what the user needs to know is just the beginning. You must also be conscious of tone, formality, grammar, spelling, format, and the amount of technical jargon. Creating a good notification message is a skill, however. Even if you're not adept at writing prose, you can still create better notification messages by following the principles in this chapter.

Note

Visual Basic .NET still supports the old MsgBox statement. It's probably not worth the effort to migrate all of your existing code to use MessageBox.Show. However, it's best to use the new MessageBox.Show method for all new message boxes that you create.

 

 

Goals When Handling User Input and Notification

Your goals when handling user input and notification should include

• Creating interactive duality for as many functions as possible

• Supporting full keyboard navigation

• Knowing your audience and anticipating the ways in which they'll use your program

• Telling your users what they need to know in a professional, clear, and concise manner