straw-man 3.2 default preferences

Ken G. Brown kbrown at tnc.ab.ca
Fri Apr 19 16:28:48 UTC 2002


I like the inboard, narrow, colored scrollbars on the left. Flop out
sausages with inconsistent placement of menu access bar need to go. I
believe the narrowness adds a bit to to the finished look. I at first
thought I would not like scroll bars on the left, however I now find them
natural to use and do not have any trouble going between Squeak and standard
apps. I think this is another case where Squeak can stand apart a little
without turning people off. I agree that the pastel colored windows and
scroll bars help set Squeak apart at the same time adding to the information
available at a glance, and allowing more easily finding a mostly hidden
window. Buttons in the browser windows are a good idea helping a new user to
know about important things to try   out. Rounded corners are nice, again
setting Squeak apart a bit. I believe we need to find the fine balance
between letting people know that Squeak is indeed different, without being a
big turnoff.

I think that particular preferences should only be in one place in the
Preference Panel, otherwise its a bit confusing as to whether it pertains to
the same thing as other ones or not.

I agree that a couple or a few different preference sets might be useful,
kinda like themes, with appropriate names, like Festive, New User, Advanced
User, Experimental etc., and being able to select your choice on first run
(with descriptive text about the choices and preferences in general) would
not only highlight the idea that there are a lot of preference settings
available, but give the new user a feeling of control. Better names are sure
to be found perhaps with some appropriate humor involved (ideas Bijan?). I
have often felt there should be more humor in programming, this is one way
Squeak might become a little more friendly and approachable.

Perhaps the following changes from Scott's list:
(cautionBeforeClosing false) -> true
(collapseWindowsInPlace true) -> false
(cpuWatcherEnabled false) -> true
(inboardScrollbars false) -> true
(menuKeyboardControl false) -> true
(scrollBarsNarrow false) -> true

Ken Brown

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scott Wallace [mailto:scott.wallace at squeakland.org]
> Sent: April 18, 2002 8:37 PM
> To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Subject: Re: straw-man 3.2 default preferences
>
>
> Ned,
>
> Well argued.
>
> Would you also put these inboard scrollbars on the *right*, on
> similar grounds of familiarity?
>
>    -- Scott
> >




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