On Fri, 3 May 2002, Henrik Gedenryd wrote:

> Alan Kay wrote:
> 
> > But, Henrik, what is the "rational argument" for having color or even
> > gray scale or different fonts in the developer interface or any
> > interface? Or flowers on your desk? Part of UI is ambience.... If you
> > don't like rounded corners, then you should be able to turn them off,
> > etc.
> 
> You are clearly talking about aesthetics. 

Exactly.

> [...]
>
> You are right in that Squeak does have an "ambience". And for anyone
> with graphic design training (etc.) who know how to "read" such things,
> Squeak's ambience reads "amateurism". There have been several people who
> know these things who have offered help. But Squeak will probably always
> be ruled by the programmer's aesthetic.

Rectangular windows are the result of "programmer's aesthetic". It's the
most straight-forward thing to do. Adding roundness makes the interface
just a tad friendlier. 

Regarding "amateurism" in the context of rounded windows (I agree that
most other visual aspects of Squeak's GUI are at best "amateurish"): The
two most recent major GUIs both have rounded window corners. I'm sure they
pay a lot for professional designers. On a related note, Macs have had
rounded screen corners for ages, but surely not for any usability reason.

-- Bert