[openbeos-cdt] Re: Areas of interest for CDT
- From: Nicholas Blachford <nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:55:16 +0000
On 11 Nov 2009, at 16:39, Humdinger wrote:
>> We'll have only marginal influence on 3rd party software through the
> HIG. If somebody chose to ignore it, we can only hope that those devs
> are punished by users publicly pointing out there transgressions.
One thing I remember about the Amiga was how the "screens" concept led to a lot
of wildly different GUIs.
When you opened a screen it was blank, you could do anything you liked and many
developers did exactly that.
This led to many inconsistent GUIs but on the other hand it led to some very,
very good UIs.
Experimentation can lead to some GUI disasters of course: hello Microsoft
ribbon menu! *Actually the concept isn't bad, but the implementation sucks.
With the move away from that towards consistent UIs we lost a lot of that
experimentation, and with it the good UIs.
We are starting to get GUI experimentation again though, at least in the mobile
field.
> All we can do is make the HIG rules easy to grasp, logical and sound.
of course, if you're going to experiment you should have good reasons for doing
so.
> Where we (and I mean everyone working on this list as only one part of
> the larger Haiku dev-community) have total control, is when a finished
> proposal finds it's way into the trunk. When the API provides some sort
> of consistency, all apps will profit.
Unless your apps include a load of ports, which these days is of course
inevitable...
> By trying to provide a consistent
> and comprehensive API, GUI elements etc. we minimize customized
> solutions like everyone rolling their own BOutlineListView or whatever.
> Identifing the most rewarding areas is another job for this list, I
> guess. So, it's not only non-developer attracting colour mixing... :)
Personally I'd like to see "deep" skinning in Haiku, not just changing window
decor but the ability to change how the windows act and behave, and yes I'd
also like to see screens appear in some form - think of a desktop but with no
icons or deskbar, just a blank canvas.
Don't get me wrong, I can see the benefit of a consistent GUI on the dekstop.
However, Try to see the benefit of being able to create something completely
different, if you want Haiku to go beyond the desktop into alternate form
factors or embedded devices you *don't* want a predefined GUI.
Consider what would happen if you had Haiku running on a modern phone type
device, the desktop GUI would be all wrong, and these days it'd also be way
outdated.
So, you should be able to add an X to close the window if you want, (I never
had a problem with the little square myself). But at the same, time if you
wanted to create a GUI for a phone that looked and acted more like an iPhone
you should be able to do that as well - easily.
--
Nicholas Blachford
nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.blachford.info
"You'll be a dentist - You have a talent for causing things pain!
Son, be a dentist - People will pay you to be inhumane! "
- Little Shop of Horrors.
Other related posts:
