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Why do it at all? Because users like the feature, because the grouping numbers makes typoes easier to spot, etc. If you want to narrow it down to implicit alte
by Zarel 8y ago
Why do it at all? Because users like the feature, because the grouping numbers makes typoes easier to spot, etc.
If you want to narrow it down to implicit alteration: Syntax highlighting is implicit alteration. And people love it.
So are a lot of WYSIWYG features, like Enter inserting a new paragraph or a new bullet point depending on context. Or tab completion itself, in the sense that it replaces the "insert tab" feature of the Tab key. Or URLs automatically transforming into links.
Explicitly with regards to Cleave.js-style auto-formatting, I personally like it (for the same reason I like syntax highlighting) and I assume many other users do too. Someone further downthread mentioned an AB test showed improved conversions:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19234805 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19234805
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> If you want to narrow it down to implicit alteration: Syntax highlighting is implicit alteration. And people love it. That's only a change of formatting that's otherwise inaccessible to the user. Effects like colors and bold/italics aren't part of the code, users can't and won't try to insert them manually - they're an extra data channel, orthogonal to what users type in, and thus free for the application to use. You want Cleave.js-style implicit? Think automatic autocorrect on Windows and MacOS. That one generates quite a lot of justified criticism - besides being a huge annoyance when dealing with proper names, brand names, peoples' names, addresses, etc., it can create life-threatening situations[0]. > Someone further downthread mentioned an AB test showed improved conversions: They did, but I honestly don't buy it - not without knowing much more about the scope and methodology of the test in question (see my response somewhere in that thread for details). "A/B test told us that" is the new "I was only following orders". -- [0] - https://twitter.com/slatestarcodex/status/944739157988974592?lang=en https://twitter.com/slatestarcodex/status/944739157988974592...