Re: To answer your question about the upcoming Style-Guide...

["Dan Kaminsky" <effugas best com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Preben Randhol <randhol@dusken4.samfundet.ntnu.no>
To: Dan Kaminsky <effugas@best.com>
Cc: gnome-gui-list@gnome.org <gnome-gui-list@gnome.org>
Date: Friday, July 24, 1998 3:44 AM
Subject: Re: To answer your question about the upcoming Style-Guide...


>* "Dan Kaminsky" <effugas@best.com
>| >The panel is ok, but I don't like the idea of a start menu like win95
>|
>|
>| Why not?
>
>See the previous mail I cleared up the misunderstanding there.


Mind emailing this to me again?  I missed it.

My one *real* beef with Linux people are those who refuse to see that there
really are some smart people at Microsoft UI.  I think the UI folks and the
compatibility guys seriously deserve respect.  Businesswise, Microsoft is
slime, and most of the code is Spagetti Hell, but 'cept for some mistakes,
there's some really good stuff that comes out of microsoft UI.
Compatibility too--glibc v. libc5?  Wossat?  :-)

>|
>| 1)  New users are trained to use it.
>
>OK, who do you expect is going to use GNOME? I say that most are Linux
>users. Thus by making a system intended _only_ for W95/98 users we are
>taking a step back.


Only?  Mac users too like having their apple menu containing their apps.

Point being, it's a technically high quality piece of UI that outclasses:

1)  Desktop apps:  Desktop gets covered up; how do you load your program?
2)  Go through the folders.  No need to argue this :-)
3)  Run menu.  Fast if you know what to type(faster if my Runbox suggestions
get implemented), but what if you don't?
4)  Categories always on screen--Less wasteful of space.
5)  All apps onscreen:  Only *critical* apps should be on screen, and they
shouldn't take much space at all.

>| >Making voiced tours, wizards etc...
>|
>| Since when did Microsoft do voiced tours?  And what logic do you bring to
>| the table saying that they're ineffective?
>
>I didn't say they made voiced tours, but it is typical of something
>they might have done.
>
>They are ineffective in the ratio : gain/disk space needed. I couldn't
>give a rat's ass about people who are too lazy to look up in the
>manual to find out how this and this is done rather than to expect
>that there are 10Mb worth of sound files for *every* app he installs
>so that he can sit back and listen to it. What I *do* care for is the
>people who are concerned about they 2Gb hard disk which is suddenly
>full and needs to buy another one.


I agree.  Voice, if even supported by the screenplay patches, must be 1)
highly compressed and 2) deletable without making the original help file
senseless.

>I also think it will be more effective that people *do* the things
>they need to do rather than to listen to it.


They could still do it, with the support of breakpoints.  Go into a demo,
watch it with breakpoints off beginning to end, then start over, and go step
by step.

>If we are talking about people with disabilities, that's another
>issue.


They matter, thus my recent modifications to the X Screenplay concept.