[openbeos] Re: Data or App Centric?

"Jonas Sundström" <jonas@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>  ...
> > In Windows, it's fairly easy for a computer newbie to start looking 
> > at
> > pictures, listen to music, record CDs or whatever task you want to 
> > do.
> > Generally, the trend is to have a application-centric view of the 
> > world,
> > which makes it (arguably) easy to get at the task at hand.
> 
> Consider the applications that device makers force you to use,
> like scanner applets, CD-R/RW dialogs, etc.
> 
> I think it would be much better if the system could provide
> the necessary uniformity, to keep everyone from rolling their own.
> I would much rather have a good system-provided scanner dialog,
> (with possible extensions, should they be necessary).
> 
> System-provided uniformity will gain the the less experienced 
> users more than would a dozen supposedly user-friendly yet 
> wildly different applets.
> 
Sure, but you need to provide the system with those dialogues.  All 
functions should be transparent to the user, like DataTranslators; but 
for -all- parts of the system.


> 
> > Now, after one has learned how it's done in BeOS, I believe
> > it is a faster way of working, which doesn't get in the way.
> > This is sadly mostly for "professional" users that perhaps 
> > need to manipulate their data in a more advanced way 
> > (think Terminal and pipes) than what a single application can
> > provide.
> 
> I believe user friendly applications can be built on top of
> what we have, without "dumbing it down", so to speak.
>
Indeed.
 
>
> > This leads to two situations, based on the user:
> > The advanced user will get hit the roof in Windows because of the 
> > inherent
> > limitations of the system (think: hacks like EasyMove or
> > ticWorkspaceGadget), whereas in BeOS, they're relatively easy to do
> > because of the bundled developer environment and the structure of 
> > the
> > operating system (file system and such).
> 
> BeOS vs. Windows.. Direct file access or system service API.
> (People files vs. Address book)
> Pros and cons, I guess.
> 
Not really; BeOS just provides the back-end for the Address Book, but 
there's nothing that says you can't go ahead and write an Outlook clone 
for BeOS that still uses the provided-for functions for managing e-
mail, contacts and such, while still being compatible at the data level 
(something which Outlook most definitely is not.)

>
> At least Windows and MacOS provide good entry-level 
> scripting languages for accessing these system services.
>
Yes. We need to standardize on Python as the default script language 
for BeOS right now :P

> 
> CyberDog:
> http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/summer96/0505.html
> 
Ack, but -this- is the real CyberDogs: 
http://www.orcsoftware.com/~ronny/Cyberdogs.html
Many hours spent on that one during junior high...


--
Mikael Jansson
http://mikael.jansson.be

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