::scr Drooling GUI

[Chris Devers]

On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Simon Batistoni wrote:

> Personally, I don't like having too many windows on the desktop. I find
> flicking between things that overlap clumsy. On windows, the problem is
> compounded by the fact that having lots of windows open makes the
> taskbar at the bottom of the screen virtually useless - the buttons
> become too small and read "Mi..." "Te..." "Mi..." "Xy...". 

Deja::scr, but I like the wab BeOS handled this: each application would
get one slot on the taskbar, and a context menu accessed by right clicking
that tab would pop out a list of all windows running under it. (More bonus
points for a subtle, extra icon showing whether these windows were on a
different virtual desktop, not that Macs or Windows supports that scheme.) 

I've read that WinXP has ripped off this behavior, but I haven't tried it. 

I'm iffy on SDI v. MDI interfaces. I've never really liked the AOL/Windows
model of one big window containing lots of smaller subwindows, but at the
came time I concede that it does have a nice organizing tendency. 

Many AOL users seem surprised that, with the 'net connection AOL's service
provides, you can open up other network software outside of AOL: browsers,
ftp and telnet sessions, napsterware, etc. Lots of these users don't seem
to realize -- or care -- that you can get on the web without using the AOL
software's browser. I can't help but think that this obfuscation is
deliberate on corporate AOL's part: "everything you could ever want to use
is right here within this window, so don't go looking out there..." 

On the other hand, the *really* MDI interface that Photoshop/Mac provides
has always seemed really weird to me. I can never decide if I like that
rootless nature of it -- the Windows versions doesn't do that, but then
the Gimp does. As much as it bothers me that an application like AOL can
try to fency you in, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the fact that
one like the Gimp or Photoshop doesn't have the self-esteem to try fencing
you in at all. 

</gives up looking for a point>

 


-- 
Chris Devers                           chdevers@netscape.net
Apache / mod_perl / http://homepage.mac.com/chdevers/resume/