[openbeos-cdt] Replicants
- From: Eddy Groen <eddyspeeder@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:48:46 +0100
Hey all,
One unique feature of the BeOS is the possibility of having replicants.
To sum this email up, "Replicants are a beautiful idea, but their
implementation is ugly."
As we are talking window (pane) design and clearing desktops this week, I
thought: time to put this up for discussion.
Like I said, the idea is beautiful. But I find myself hardly using them,
basically for two reasons:
1. I have "use replicants" off on default, because the "replicant hand" is
obnoxiously present.
2. The outcome of a replicated application embedded in the Desktop isn't
very pretty:
SoundPlay:
http://www.birdhouse.org/beos/byte/29-10000ft/beos.multitask.full.jpg
Aaah: http://www.brantaero.com/lack/BeFull_0.05.png
Examples that are still pretty cool (but up for improvement in my eyes):
Clock and sticky: http://www.haiku-os.it/immagini/news/navitracker4haiku.jpg
Clock/Calk/Act.mon.:
http://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/Haiku_Slideshow/17_various-replicants.png
My goal:
I would like to discuss what the possibilities are to make replicants
"nicer", in the sense that "I" (or someone like me) would actually use them.
I see great potential for them becoming the Haiku-way of presenting widgets
to the user (Clock being a pretty obvious example of that). To do this
appropriately, means must be sought to not clutter the Desktop, and to be
able to align widgets (in a straight horizontal or vertical line). The
"replicant hand" in my eyes should completely be chopped off, and be
replaced with a translucid charcoal triangle that pops up (or slides in) in
the right bottom corner.
What are your thoughts?
Eddy
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