Squeak UI

Steve Dekorte steve at inquisit.com
Fri Apr 10 21:51:09 UTC 1998


> If you want to do a GUI do MacOS since MS stole it from Apple
> (who stole it from XeroxParc who stole it from...)

Or the NeXTstep UI, which was the evolution of the Mac UI(which was the
evolution of the Xerox UI).

The important thing isn't the window boarders or button shapes - it's
the big issues like modality, concreteness and access.

In terms of the visual UI, Smalltalk had a some great UI ideas -
windows, browsers, and the pasteboard.
(The other UI ideas already existed in mechanical forms)

The Mac made menus more concrete and added drag and drop but left out browsers.

NeXTstep cleaned up the Mac UI, added the browser back in(and improved it),
and pushed the inspector idea forward.

It would be nice to see all these great ideas appropriately applied in one UI.
(With preferences for the trivial stuff like borders and button shapes)

Steve

PS. Mentioning Smalltalk and NeXT in the same email reminds me of a story:
    At the 1st NeXT Expo, during a special fireside chat with NeXT engineers,
    Charles Perkins got up and asked: "All this stuff is really great
    but why didn't you do it in Smalltalk?"





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