Re: A Brief Comparrison of Gnome 2.2 & KDE 3.1

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Fri, 2003-02-21 at 09:15, MArk Finlay wrote:
> http://www.linuxworld.com/2003/0219.petreley.html

<snip/>

> ---
> 
> The other obvious consistency issue is the application of the HIG.
> There seem to be a few people working very well on this. Would
> it be useful to set up a HIGification project/list?

One thing that helps is a bit of evangelism; I make a point of filing
bugs against any GTK2/GNOME2 app I see that doesn't appear to follow the
HIG, and suggest the authors to ask on the usability list for ideas/help
- so far I've had nothing but positive responses.  App authors just need
to be made aware of the HIG, why it should be followed (it's not just a
guide for GNOME apps being consistant, it's a guide for making good user
interfaces), and that they can get help from more experienced usability
people on the right list.

> 
> Another thing that would be useful would be to have glade create
> ui that conforms to the HIG by default. Or to have a HIG mode.

This is something I agree with whole-heartedly.  You really have to
actively work to get everything laid out just so, versus having it by
default doing what it should.

I'm not familiar with the advanced Glade features, but what about the
ability to create more complex and oft-used widget sets?  Like the
preferences dialogs in apps, those appear to need a lot of work and
careful layout to do what all apps need to do.

> 
> ---
> 
> Another thing he mentions is not being able to find the control center.
> I couldn't agree with him more. We need to move Desktop Preferences,
> System Settings and Server Settings out of the Applicaions menu and into
> their own top level menu.

Dropping a Configuration launcher on the desktop by default might be
useful here; it can be deleted by those who don't want it, but provide
for users to easily 'find' the preferences.

> 
> Also a "Control Center" launcher linking to 'gnome-control-center
> --use-shell' would be useful for people who are used to kcontrol and
> windows control center. The menus are good for those of us who already
> know the control center, but for someone browsing for an option the
> shell is easier to use.

Is the shell particularily better usability as opposed to the Nautilus
interface?

> 
> He also mentions duplicate menu entries after he installs his debs. This
> can also be seen with GARNOME on redhat8. A small issue that can be
> fixed by tweaking the vfolders, but would be nice to protect against it
> automagically.
> 
> ----
> 
> He also mentions that his start-here icon was missing from the desktop.
> And because of this he re-installed Gnome 2 or 3 times. If the icon is
> ment to be there then maybe nautilus should recreate it if it gets
> removed. Not that this will be an issue when we remove start-here: all
> together in 2.3 :)

One thing GNOME2 is missing that Ximian GNOME had (hopefully will have)
is the Doorman.  That was very useful, and could help protect against
this; it could detect a new version of GNOME, and among it's other
questions, ask if the user would like his desktop reset to the default
(along with the options to mimic other desktops for familiarity).

Which also brings me to the fact a default set of gconf keys for storing
user information (name, phone number, etc.), since it's annoying when 6
or 7 apps all ask for this information; at least, they could use these
keys for default options.  The 'Doorman' could query these in (and use
the system gecos field for *its* defaults).  But that's another topic. 
/me goes to see if he filed the bug on that yet or not.

> 
> Later
-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>