Information, Warnings, and User Input Areas

Different types of prompt text, information text, and warning and error messages will appear in the graphics window and also extra information text will appear in the terminal window. The main ``dialogue'' is in always in the graphics window, but sometimes more detailed explanation is given in the terminal window.

Throughout the GUI a simple colour coding is used to indicate: user input, information, or warning messages. ``Active'' regions such as buttons and region for inputting text have a yellow background with blue writing. (Note: the image of the data and the whole graphics window may be ``active'' for certain operations, but these are left in their normal colours.) General information text has a white background and black text, and warning or error messages have a red border and within black writing on a white background.

Information and warning text in the terminal window is identified by one of four initial ``keywords'':

INFO: The text is of a purely informative nature e.g. values calculated as the result of some operation, or information on an input data-set.

NOTE: The text is also informative, but highlights a potential for misunderstanding by an inexperienced user. Thus, such messages should be carefully noted.

WARNING: Something has not worked as it should. This may be of greater or lesser importance depending on the circumstances. e.g. An input file was not found, or was of the wrong format.

ERROR: Something ``serious'' has gone wrong. This may require exiting FIT2D or may be ``recoverable'' depending on the circumstances. e.g. The system has failed to allocate dynamic memory as requested.

It should be noted that these categories are not strict i.e. in some circumstances a WARNING message may be more serious than an ERROR message, nevertheless, this show a generally increasing importance and need for user comprehension and maybe action.