[no subject]

The CUA is unfortunately not as straightfoward as the MacOS HIG about this.
Of the CUA-based environments (Windows, CDE, and OS/2), only OS/2 presents 
instant-apply windows; they do not have button to close the window which is
closed from the window menu. 

Aside:
 Looking over the CUA and trying to find a concise quote, it now seems that
 if one has not used MacOS or OS/2 for some length of time the presentation
 is opaque and were something as insane as adopting the CUA wholesale done,
 we'd quickly end up with a lousy UI. This doesn't mean that the ideas are
 bad, just that they are not presented well enough for people used to
 Windows to get them easily.

 And I'm talking about the programmers who are make an interface according
 to some guidelines, not the users. I opened IE on my father's computer and
 pointed at the main window which displayed no page. My mother is very
 nearly a technophobe - she's just shy of going into hysterics every time
 she sits in front of a computer, she typically just gives up early or gets
 help. I pointed to the IE window and said, "What's that?" while tracing the
 outline of the entire window with my finger.

 Her response was, "a blank space".  How's that for terminology?

 (At some point later I said the word "window" and she said, "Window?"
  I outlined the frame again and she said, "oh. I didn't know those were
  called windows." I got the impression that she was looking for one of
  those four-color flying window icons, or something that looked like a
  house window, but I didn't pursue that.)

 Momemnts later I called on her again. I present the dreaded Quicktime
 player (Windows version) to her. This is the one without any sort of
 closing button on the settigs page; it just has the window frame close
 button.

 I told her, "You've just tried to play a song over the Internet and a
 message popped up saying something about needing settings so it could
 talk to another computer." (I had in mind the proxy configuration, but I
 did not say proxy.) "Change this so that it will work."

 The Quicktime Player (QP) has two windows: one shows just a menu and the
 other one is the silvery thing that is supposed to look like a real device.
 Seeing nothing on the silvery thing that made any sense to her, the first
 thing she did was click on the X in the top-right corner. Frustrated, she
 said, "Why did clicking on that make everything [silvery thing and menu
 window] disappear???" I told her to not mind that and restarted QP.
 She then proceded to explore the silvery thing and tried almost every button
 on it. (None were obvious to her.) Sensing she was distracted, I reminded
 her that she need to change something having to do with another computer
 between her and the Internet. Seeing the sunken and differently colored
 play progress indicator and thinking it was an entry widget she tried to
 type into it. Seeing that this wasn't working, she said "Edit!" and went
 to the Edit menu in the other QP window. She was looking for something
 that would allow her to type, but seeing that only the preferences submenu
 could be used, she moused into that and chanced upon "Connection Speed";
 the next item on the menu is "Streaming Proxy", but she had not a clue that
 was what she needed. Having heard of "Internet connections" she chose
 the "Connection Speed" item. After muddling with the controls there,
 never once making it to the Proxy page, and thinking she was done she said,
 "Now what?". I said, "Try to play the song again." She immediately went to
 the settings window frame close button. She went straight to it despite
 having closed 'everything' moments ago by clicking on the silvery thing's
 close button. Her next question was, "How do I make this play?" I pointed
 to the play button and said, "Press that. See, it looks like a VCR play
 button." She didn't indicate having made the connection even when told.
 I told her not to mind it and talked her through what would happen next:
 "Pretend you've pressed the button. Now the same message about that other
  computer pops up, so what you changed didn't work. Do you want to try
  again, or [having noted her mounting frustration] give up?" She said,
 "Give up." and quickly rose from the chair.


> > The user may not be running a window manager at all, so should we add a
> > complete frame to every window?
> >
> > The user's window manager may do many things to interfere with the 
> > operation of programs, so should we make all windows use override 
> > redirection and grab the server while focused to prevent the window
> > manager from disabling the application by placing it in some inaccessible
> > part of the screen or stealing its keybindings?
> 
> You are using the slippery slope fallacy.  This does not support your claim
> nor disprove mine.

I won't argue that. :-)


> George
> 
> -- 
> George <jirka 5z com>
>    Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
>                        -- Sir Winston Churchill


Gregory Merchan