[plug] Good GUI Interface Design

[Ben New]

Cameron Patrick wrote:

>| What do you do if you don't like the Windows GUI? (Install Linux, I
>| know ;-) but assuming that isn't an option...?)
>
>Install LiteStep or one of the many other explorer replacements?  Those
>from the Windows world probably have a whole pile of hidden tricks to
>get Windows to behave more sensible than it does.
>
>Of course if you do that, and you then want to go to someone else's
>machine, good luck transferring all your customisations (such that they
>affect your account only) there easily.  Mmm, rsync :)
>  
>
Also the speed reduction can be quite dramatic.  I remember installing a 
mutliple desktop application on some flavour of Windows and it slowed it 
down to total unusability.

>| I'd have to say there are a number of logistical problems with your 
>| proposed ".guirc" method.
>| 
>| Firstly, not all software that is run on Linux is "Linux software" - 
>| i.e. there are also Java apps, Windows apps under Wine (etc), and so on, 
>| which would have no knowledge of the ".guirc" file. Neither are they all 
>| developed using the same tools - there are programs written in C, C++, 
>| Python, Tcl/Tk, and so on. It just seems impractical to have them all 
>| tied down to the same interface constraints.
>
>However, they use just a handful of toolkits:  Xaw, Motif, GTK, Qt, Tk.
>(Forgetting about Wine, OOo and Mozilla here - they're about the only
>applications that I can think of which don't use the major toolkits
>above.)  Porting those toolkits to obey .guirc would cover the
>overwhelming majority of problems.
>  
>
See my reply to Craig's post...

>| By forcing standard behaviours (even if they are configurable), aren't
>| you limiting the scope for application developer creativity?
>
>I think that James D had something to say about developers being
>"creative" with their interfaces.  (Hint: most of the time is sucks
>badly.  I can't stand WinAmp and everything which copied it and its
>"skins" idea.  Sweep, OTOH, is a good example of a creative interface
>Done Right.  Even there it sticks to standard GTK for most of its
>interface.  The GIMP is a good example of a hideous interface - it also
>plays badly with "non-traditional" window managers like ion and ratpoison that
>don't support overlapping windows except in a few special cases.)
>  
>
Yes but there's creativity, and then there's "being creative" ;-)

(rest of post snipped as you were mostly agreeing with me anyway ;-) )

-- 
Ben New
ben at leftclick.com.au

Leftclick Software Development
http://www.leftclick.com.au/