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toggle time

Two buttons, or not two buttons?

That is the question...

The DJ is happy with the program so far. However, he thinks it would work
better if he had just one button instead of two. He’s convinced this would be
easier to use, because he wouldn’t have to move his mouse around the screen
quite so much.

Speed‛s important, dude.
Can‛t I just press the
button to start the track,
then press it again to stop
it?

Will the next click
start or stop whatever
this button does?

It is possible to use a single button here but, without changing the physical
appearance of the button each time it’s clicked, a user can’t possibly know
what state the button is currently in, even though the DJ does have ears in
this instance. But, in general, using a button to switch between two states is not
regarded as best practice in GUI design.
What your DJ friend actually wants is some sort of visual toggle...
something that can be flipped between one of two states: on/off, open/close,
flip/flop, and so on. You need to use a different graphical interface element.

Is there a GUI visual toggle you can use here?

328 Chapter 9