User Interface design issues

[System]

Interesting article about user interfaces at phrasewise. Reminds me of the times when we were talking about database filesystems and that. Worth a read!  

[xisp]

I totally agree when he says what a
shame it is that Linux GUIs have copied what
Windows has done.

Instead of finding new ways of doing things,
they concentrate too much on stealing
users to Microsoft. Start Menus and
Explorer-like File browsers are the bait. But a
system like UN*X deserves a radical new
concept to manage all its possibilities in
a graphical manner.

It has surprised me the fact of inconsistencies
between the file requesters and file browsers:
I instantly remembered of a Devcon93 paper
(that you can find among Dave Haynie's file
archive). In it, Commodore programers
described some changes they wanted to
do (and never commited) to the Workbench
UI. They especifically talked about making
Workbench file-browser coherent with ASL
requesters. Was it a sign of moving in the
right way?

Any article talking about changing User
interfaces from the ground up is interesting.

[Dagon]

Linux is a wanna be UNIX :-D. BSD is the real thing :-P

I have a question, when you wanna move a program on win-dos what can you do? except editing the chaos-registry by your self? is there any program?

On Amiga it would be nice if the OS was looking on the user-startup if there has to be changed the path of the program and change it.

Any other ideas that you`d like to have someday on AmigaOS?

[CodeSmith]

I find the idea of file IDs quite intriguing - move your files around and still be able to easily find them.  I don't see how that could be easily patched into AmigaOS (maybe a new filesystem?), since AmigaDOS borrows heavily from unix as far as file naming is concerned.

[ShadesOfGrey]

I don't know if this is true or not, but it has been said that AOS 4 will include ReiserFS.  ReiserFS is a 'popular' journaling file system for Linux.  Hence it may very well bring this 'feature' (among others, see web site) to AOS 4 (if properly implemented and utilized).

[jaokim]

Hear-hear!

The computer world really needs a new environment! Stop thinking computers and start thinking human behaviour! But not Bob, please. We want humans, not idiots!

[Erwin-K]

Some of the article seems confusing. Are all your applications running at once if there are no 'Quit' buttons?

If you work on a WP file and close the file does the WP automatically exit? How do you create new WP files?

Do you have to create a DB file to sort your content in a manner that makes sense to you? Are you forced into the mindless 'My Docs' & 'My Pictures', or can you keep files of any kind under a project name?

While this person makes some good points, I think he wants HAL form '2001' to be in every box out there.
:nervous:

[L8-X]

I like the $25 to ask a question in the support section! :-o

[gary_c]

Erwin-K wrote:

Some of the article seems confusing. Are all your applications running at once if there are no 'Quit' buttons?

They quit automatically when you close your document window. Anyhow, that's what happens with Internet Explorer.

I also have misgivings about the idea of no application "quit" menu item (and the other side of the coin: auto-quit when the file is closed). This is also the way BeOS works. If you're writing something in the text editor, when you finish your document and close it, the text editor also closes. This can be a real drag in a program like a graphics editor, where you are constantly opening, saving and closing image files. You definitely don't want to have to restart your program every time you close and open a file when you're working on a set of files. I cope with that default behavior by opening a new "doorstop" file for the sole purpose of keeping the program running while I open, work on, and close my "real" files. Not exactly an elegant solution.

Maybe it's true that the quit button exposes an implementation detail, but it's a detail that I don't mind having access to. Yes, it's nifty that the program goes away when you're through using it, but often you're not through with the program even though you were through with the first document you used it for. Then the metaphor is a power saw that you have to get out of the tool box for every new board you want to cut -- lots of wasted time and effort here. At the very least this should be a user configuration option.

-- gary_c