Squeak and ST in general (4)

Ali Chamas alichamas at yahoo.com
Thu Nov 18 04:36:30 UTC 1999


--- Stefan Matthias Aust <sma at 3plus4.de> wrote:
> I'm in the mood for some flaming; please excuse me

....

> My PC has 256 MB and a large and fast hard disk.  It
> has a fast graphics
> card and I like pleasant looking and easy to use
> applications. Most times,
> the look is more important than a certain feature. 
> Normally, I decide in
> the first 5 minutes whether I like a tool or not. 
> Celeste, Scamper, the
> whole Squeak IDE, even the SameGame or FreeCell
> can't stand the comparison.
>  I really like the games, but they're still slower
> than any C or VB
> application on my old computer.  As I really liked
> the SameGame, I
> downloaded another implementation of this idea.  If
> I only judge from the
> application level, I don't need Squeak.

I agree on the quality of UI crafting. Programmers can
quite often forget to focus on how a program looks,
simply because a lot of energy goes into how it works,
and what it does. I'm currently working on my own
window system within Squeak, which i'm basing on the
tabbed feature of QKSs Smalltalk Agents. Even though i
love Squeak to bits (;1), i'm taking action with the
UI side of things. When you're on the other side of
the screen, what you're looking at can be a big factor
in how much you enjoy using it, but still - we've all
heard the one about the book and the cover...

> > - show people that we can also create serious
> applications
> 
> I'd really like to see one, yes...

I'm doing mortal kombat style games in Squeak. One
thing i can't stand is browsing through a menu,
finding an item called 'games', and then being given a
poxy set of 'toys'. Fear not, there are those out
there who have great plans for Squeak...coming soon...

> > - give people what they wanna have on their
> computer:
> >   text processing, a good webbrowser, paint
> programs, media, games,
> >   communication, ...
> 
> Hm, I already have WinWord (which I really like -
> mainly because it's also
> my VisualBasic development system ;-), Internet
> Explorer, PaintShopPro and
> Corel, media?, Warcraft, Agent & Eudora Light.  Yes,
> that's really
> Microsoft heavy, but on Linux, I'd use StarOffice,
> Netscape, Gimp, media?,

I think he meant within Squeak? As in a Squeak OS plus
accessories...again, a stronger UI delivery is the
key. Look at the way MetaCreations handled their
interface - take Poser, or Bryce - now this is style.
Thank the Squeak team that a high amount of Graphics
and Sound ability is included in Squeak, this let's
creative programmers like myself and others go to
town...you guys keep working on the real guts, i'll
help with the UI...coming soon...;)

Ali.
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