Re: RSG

["Dan Kaminsky" <effugas best com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Preben Randhol <randhol@dusken4.samfundet.ntnu.no>
To: Dan Kaminsky <effugas@best.com>
Cc: George <jirka@5z.com>; gnome-gui-list@gnome.org
<gnome-gui-list@gnome.org>
Date: Monday, August 03, 1998 3:57 AM
Subject: Re: RSG


>* "Dan Kaminsky" <effugas@best.com
>
>| That's the most fun part of our job (for us) and the most infuriating
part
>| of it (for you)...we don't really care what the present state of code
*is*,
>| just what it *should* be :-)    Note, if something is impossible, it
>| probably shouldn't be worked on :-D
>
>Well you wind up with loosing programmers if you make a styleguide
>with a lot of far fetched things like videos (screenplay) etc...


Well, lesse, the code for Xlab is around 90% *done*, complete, finished,
whatever, and we have word from its author that it'd be quite easy to
integrate into a help browser.  (We even have, in a way, *SAMPLE CODE*.  The
only problem with XLab is that it's somewhat X dependant, but I'll Oh Well
that for now :-)

More of an issue is macros--making sure all libgnomeui functions are
scriptable ain't easy, but according to some sources *is* being done through
CORBA.  So maybe we can hope for simple macros after all.

I'm not concerned with how much something is in GNOME now.  I'm concerned
with how easy it would be to add *later*, and how much work individual app
authors would have to duplicate.  The more up-front work, the less probable
it gets done in the first place.  The more each-app work, the *way* less
probable it gets done in the first place.

It's very easy for me to ask for all the keybox toys I've been hoping for,
but I've been HOPING that it's not too hard to code.  We'll find out when
the proposal gets peeked at by gnome-dev.


>| That's why I'm very excited about Xlab.  It's enough of a proof of
concept
>| *right now* to say, yes, we can say GNOME should use screenplays, and
yup,
>| it'll probably be one of those Defining Things that makes GNOME *really*
>| popular.
>
>If it is I won't probably use GNOME as the rest must suck big
>time.


I've been doing some research on the concept of screenplays, bringing it up
to standard users.  Once they figure out what it is, they *REALLY* react
well to the concept.  "Finally, I don't have to figure out what the hell
those damn docs are trying to tell me!"  I'm hearing that pretty much
unanimously.