[openbeos] Re: Preference Apps and Replicants
- From: "Simon Taylor" <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 19:52:32 GMT
> does anyone else think it's time to put Tracker/Deskbar in the boot
> script?
Perhaps. Nothing to do with the message you replied to though.
On the replicants-for-prefs thing, I'm not convinced of the benefits.
Maybe thats just because I much prefer the preflet approach to an all-
in-one system manager type app.
Forcing all apps to use the same size for preference panels seems a bit
restrictive to me.
I guess I just don't see any major advantages with the replicant
approach. In your IDE example, you could simply have a menu item that
launches the Screen preflet app - if you wanted something more
integrated with your app, you would implement it by using the BScreen
API directly without using any system-provided dialog IMHO.
> On Jul 11, 2005, at 12:53 PM, Ben Allen wrote:
>
> > [I apologize ahead of time if this is more directed towards the
> > pref.
> > apps team. Their forum is a ghost town and I wanted to get some
> > feedback on something]
> >
> > One of BeOS's best features was also one that hardly ever saw any
> > use:
> > Replicants. Replicants have been discussed several times before,
> > and
> > I think the general consensus was that we should try to take
> > advantage
> > of their power more often. I think that replicants can add
> > simplicity
> > and power to our preference apps, and help keep a more uniform
> > interface across the system.
> >
> > Here is what I mean: Currently, each preference app is a separate
> > application (network, screen prefs, mouse, etc). Instead of having
> > an
> > application for each preference app, each is designed as a
> > replicable
> > BView. Then, we only need one application (PreferenceViewer, or
> > whatever) that can retrieve the replicant, resize itself
> > accordingly,
> > and appear to the user just as if there were separate apps for
> > each.
> >
> > This would also allow the user to (if they prefer) use a more
> > "control
> > center" approach to preferences. That is, one application that can
> > modify all system preferences with a multi-tabbed or similar
> > interface. All the app would have to do is call the replicants as
> > needed and insert them into itself.
> >
> > As far as other applications go, this approach would help app
> > developers with their preferences settings; they could use the
> > PreferenceViewer to design their own preference dialog. It would
> > also
> > make it easy to incorporate system preference dialogs in apps that
> > might need them (such as a copy of the screen prefrences app in a
> > developer IDE so that someone might easily switch resolutions and
> > color depths for testing).
> >
> > Many of the preference apps are similar in size; if a default
> > preference app size and design standard was set by
> > PreferenceViewer,
> > app developers might find it easier to make their apps visually
> > integrate with the OS. (hopefully that wouldn't be too limiting and
> > make some preference panels impossibly cluttered)
> >
> > I'm sure somebody reading this is having their own ideas about
> > using
> > replicants for system preference apps, and I am eager to hear your
> > ideas. This is likely not an R1 thing (except maybe on a basic
> > level), but I thought I would mention it in case someone else was
> > thinking the same thing.
> >
> > -Ben
> >
>
>
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