Future AmigaOS GUI

[CodeSmith]

@NewRevolution:

That's what a skinnable gui is all about - you go to Prefs, select "gui preferences" and load up the "OS3.1" preset.  I'm fairly certain a ton of skins will become available shortly after OS4 ships - I'd like to see what a "Geos 1.3" skin would feel like  :-)

[NewRevolution]

I wasn't just thinking of the skins - but functionality as well. Because if we want some serious change in GUI, we have to change the code for how windows behaves - widgets and all that.

Btw. I found some lecture notes regarding GUI and widgets. Since I knew very little about widgets, I found it intersting. Might be a bit biased towards M$..... Here is the link for those of you (or not) that are in the same boat as me  :-D
The link

[olegil]

I think it's safe to say that posting a couple of screenshots to amiga.org is not going to make Hyperion commit to anything. I dunno if SimoAmi has bothered to contact them properly, but from the looks of it, he hasn't. I again suggest contacting Hyperion about making a theme. At worst they say "sorry, you missed the deadline", but from what I hear I think this is in fact what's being worked on as a last-minute thing (well, you can't introduce a severe crash by frelling up the pixels in a gadget, can you? So it makes sense doing this while everyone is doing last-minute beta testing). At best they say: Ok, contact this-or-that person and he'll send you the template he's using for the themes.

Gee, come on. I think Hyperion would agree to this if asked _properly_. Stop talking to Hyperion through forums, send them an email like everyone else...

[Hammer]

@SimoAmi (for 2003/6/12 10:26:24 post)
Very nice…

[mikeymike]

@ SimoAmi

I said before, URL your images.  Please don't make me ask again.  Some people still have to use modems.

[Hammer]

Not seen it, not used it, don't know anything about it.

Careful with the generalisation i.e. "Windows is possibly the most inconsistent GUI I have used".

This is my point: this sort of thing shouldn't be needed. Sure, put something in to force it back to the old display for compatibility, but don't default things which come with the OS to the old design.

It depends on the priorities i.e. compatibility vs visual appearance.

yet a program written to use OS2.04's asl.library will happily use OS3.9's asl.library and look the same as the programs which were written with OS3.9's version in mind.

Misapplied assumptions. Due to the nature of Window’s File Open Dialog window i.e. components/objects can be added or deleted (this is the application programmer’s decision).

Have you ever programmed in any of the visual integrated development environment (e.g. Visual Basic, Visual C, Borland C Builder, Borland Delphi, Borland J Builder and ‘etc’)?

[PhatBoiCollier]

Just an idea....

Given that AmigaOS in the future will *supposedly* run AmigaOE (AmgiaDE/SDK/whatever else its called!)  and also that AmigaOE will run on *many platforms*.  And also given the great flexibility of the OE (i.e. alpha channeling, V flexible menus, MUI style layout support etc.), and also given that there is no real "desktop" environment for it yet, how about trying to implement your OS GUI design in AmigaOE?

Just an idea....

[teo]

@mikeymike

Actually no, you said

Can we PLEASE start URL'ing huge pictures!

I dont think the last ones were *huge*. What is your dimension definition of huge? so i can try and stick to those dimensions for the ones coming up, even though this topic is about *graphical* user interfaces...

[Step]

@SimoAmi

Your Screenmode prefs example generally look better, there is work needed on both when it comes to alignment and general layout of the different elements tough. The white areas in your example is really needed, there is way too much grey.

The thin line between gadgets in the official one is something i prefer over not having them.


A tip for all interested:
Apples UI guidlines is a good read for starters, aswell as the (massive) research done by IBM on UI issues.

[mikeymike]

this topic is about *graphical* user interfaces...

So maybe you ought to send in your comments on uncompressed bitmaps?  That would surely help wouldn't it?

If you're posting significantly-sized images, URL them.  If people are interested, they'll check out the URL.

[teo]

@mikeymike

So maybe you ought to send in your comments on uncompressed bitmaps?

Not sure what you trying to get at there, it doesnt even qualify as sarcasm as it has no point, there is no reason to get offensive.

posting significantly-sized images, URL them

And i will, when you tell me what you define as huge (sorry, now significant) Eg, i see simo's images on page 7 as fine, you obviously do not. So what size would you recommend. And I suggest you re-check my image post on page four before replying. Btw, you know there is a reason there are [img] tags (im also on a modem)

[NewRevolution]

As long as images isn't over 25k, I'm happy. I've only got a 56k modem, and if the pictures get to be 100+k I start to worry :-)

I proposed it before, I can repeat myself.
Can all prototype proposals be uploaded the the img gallery? Maybe there can be created a separate folder for GUI prototypes or something. That way, everybody can study the images without browsing back 5-6 pages to find them.

[olegil]

I second that. Put it somewhere where it can be browsed through. Collect them in one place, and we'll comment there. Much smarter than starting new threads here all the time :-)

[mikeymike]

@ teotwin

My intention was not to be offensive, if anything mildly sarcastic, pointing out that it doesn't matter what the thread is about.

I was purposefully not exactly defining image file size, I'm still kind of hoping that common sense would prevail.  At least it seems common sense to me to not force people to download the same images over and over again when they've seen them before.  There I am wondering why my bandwidth disappears for ages downloading the first page's 'screenshots' when I've seen them a hundred times already.

Your post on page 4 is more sensible than posting the full-size image, and thank you for the effort.  It would probably be less effort to URL the picture though :-)

There is a reason for the a.org messaging [img] tag, but the reason is not a modem DoS tool :-)

@ NewRevolution

Good idea.  I've created a category for this:
http://amiga.org/gallery/index.php?c=4

[PhatBoiCollier]

> Good idea. I've created a category for this:
>http://amiga.org/gallery/index.php?c=4

.. And I've added a picture....

[teo]

click to enlarge


Although the pic is far from detailed (rather flawed actually), it gives the idea of the functionality that could possibly be gained by using window tabs. In reality there would be more tabs for things such as network settings etc etc.

Obvious faults with the pic are the missing buttons in the recessed window group such as icons for revert, default, load prefs and others. The list box would be populated by different display cards or similar and the resolution and depth would not be applicable (as they are sleected outside the display)

re: the actual screen prefs section. i have changed it a bit to illustrate that at least the screenmode prefs could be updated with dramatically better usability and more logical layout, im sure my design can also be improved to a large degree too. incase your wondering, ive removed the "Test" button with the assumption that the "Save" and "Use" button would detect a screen mode cange at run time and prompt to run a test at that point (windows style) for the single reason that it help clean it up a bit (ie, i could find anywhere to shove it ;-)

ps @mikeymike, hows this, the image is in a.orgs new mock up image section you have provided, the generated thumb is not too different (in size) from the avatars on the site. Catch is we would have to wait for the imgs to be approved before we could link to them in forums such as i have done here.