Re: why I don't use GNOME

[Ilan Volow <raskinite yahoo com>]

> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 11:32:21 -0800 (PST)
> From: kenneth topp <caught prodigy net>
> To: <gnome-gui-list gnome org>
> Subject: why I don't use gnome...
> 
> 
> Minor:
> 
> 1) Want it to be more mac like:
>    - menus on top. Mark apparently has solved this,
> but the solution is
> pushed until 2.0, which is a year away?
>    - a better app lister (macintosh is better then
> windows in this
> regard, but we have multiple desktops, so design
> work is needed)
> 

1. Funny that you mention the mac-like part. I'm
currently working on a GNOME fork that removes the
broken parts of the windows UI concepts (dialogs with
"Ok" on right and "Cancel" on left,  underline
accelerators, menus attached to windows, etc) and puts
a nice, mac-like UI in its place. I became tired of
seeing ten years of the worst Microsoft UI design
misakes being carried on in GNOME and decided to do
something about it. Not that I don't want to make a UI
better than the mac's, but if you have to copy
someone, it's better to copy who knew what the heck
they were doing. It's amazing what small changes to
libgnomeui macros can do to windows-like stuff when
it's recompiled. Behold the power of free source code!
Now most of my GNOME programs on my machine have
mac-like (Alt) keyboard shortcuts :). The global
application menu will be a tougher nut to crack, but
the existing foobar widget code should ease some of
that toughness. 


2. As far as app listers go,the best layout I've seen
is implemented in WindowMaker. It puts nice, big,
Fitts friendly buttons representing currently running
apps against the border of the screen. Using the
middle mouse button to bring up a pop-up menu with
currently running apps is also a very nice touch. If
one or two things were handled just a little bit
differently, the WindowMaker method would come close
to being the perfect solution. 


--Ilan

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