Thinking about a better UI

Joachim Durchholz joachim.durchholz at munich.netsurf.de
Mon May 17 21:14:10 UTC 1999


O'NEEL Bruce wrote:
> 
> Hi,
>   Um, I think this is already there.  If I start up a fresh 2.4c image
> I get a number of windows, which, if fully read, cover most of the
> getting startup process.
> 
> One window is a light yellow titled Getting Started....  This includes
> a link to click to get the ReadMe.txt, or, read the same file on the
> swiki.

I have to pay for my internet access by the minute, so using a Swiki is
not an option for me. This is a pity, as Swikis seem to be an important
Squeak resource.
It might be a good idea to have a download option for Swikis. Some
mechanism that allows us poor intermittent internet citizens to download
pages, with an option to update all downloaded-but-outdated pages.

> The ReadMe.txt does cover how to run the UI, though I don't
> see that you have to be in a pane to actually type there.

Yes, I've seen it. It's very basic, and soon branches off into the
internet. So its utility quickly came to an end for me.

> It does not talk about flaps though.  You start in MVC and not morphic
> so flaps won't work.

Ah. I thought it was an MVC concept.
Somehow Morphic never worked for me. All those colored circles
("halos"?), and none of them told me what it was good for. Just clicking
them didn't do me much good; they were nice, but I never managed to
learn by heart which color was good for what. Some of them were even
destructive if I remember right.

> All the key operations are listed under the Help menu and
> this is reference in the ReadMe.txt file.  What's not there is what
> cooresponds to the Mac Cmd key.  My unix keyboard seems to like alt
> just like your windows keyboard does.  I seem to remember that the
> Swiki documents which special key cooresponds to the Cmd key.
> 
> Another window is kind of a dark yellow and it's title is Welcome
> To... In here is a nice overview of the neat features of Squeak and
> some simple demos.

I don't recall that one.

> As Dan and others have pointed out the selector finder is a goldmine.

Hm... this should be made part of the ReadMe.txt file.
It would be best if ReadMe.txt were a hypertext resource so that novices
don't have to read everything in sequence just to find out what's
happening. Or the browsers should be made into such a system - they're
there as a central tool anyway.
Maybe somebody should do a usability lab test on Squeak. Fetch a few
everyday programmers from the street, watch them struggling with Squeak,
then improve the novice pointers. Squeak would definitely benefit from
this.

I'm currently trying to get enough resolve together to have a second go
at Squeak...

> It does a good job pointing you in the right direction.  The other
> thing which works well is the class finder, in a class browser middle
> click in the upper left hand pane and give it a bit of a class name.

And then such banalities as not having a middle button stop you dead in
your track...

> Things are named such that after one or two tries I almost always get
> a response which starts me down the right path.

Thank you very much. I'm not sure whether I have enough to get me really
started, but I really appreciate the effort (and maybe this helps some
other newbies).

Regards,
Joachim
-- 
Please don't send unsolicited ads.





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