Diego,

For what it's worth from someone who is only sporadically playing with Squeak 
and just started to learn Smalltalk, as a way to get there,

   *I absolutely love this* !

There are many reasons I am saying this, in brief:

	- Squeak menus are completely overwhelming and (to me) confusing mix of 
"application" items, user interface items, debugging items etc. I could never 
explain it to my kids and have hard time myself, especially at the beginning 
I was confused. It is great to have a way to separate into "novice", "expert" 
etc. 

	- Your description of the additions (Tool bars, Docking Bars, Object tools) 
makes lots of sense and (to me) your reasons / approaches sound right.

	- It seems like great step to promote Squeak

	- I showed the screenshot to my kids and they love it.

Thanks .. now to find time to play with it :)

Milan

PS I assume this is Morphic, is that correct?

	
On September 12, 2004 08:34 am, Diego Gomez Deck wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My apologies for the HTML posting, but is much more easy to include
> images and formating in this format:
>
> DISCLAIMER:
> This is an incomplete, still not finish, alpha, etc, etc piece of work.
> It's working fine and smoothly in my tests with a set of ~10 users
> playing with this, but it's not finished yet.
>
> INTRODUCTION:
> This work is a consequence of my experience teaching Squeak to novice
> users in the last year for LinEx project.  These users are, mostly,
> teachers with no too much experience with computers.  A small group of
> them have some experience in the "average" use of computers (office type
> tools, internet and games).
>
> One of the goals behind these changes is to reuse the experience they
> have with computer as long as show Squeak as a different tool.  I found
> that the differences in the look of Squeak's surface helps to transmit
> the message: Squeak is nothing like other tools you tried before.
>
> The trade-off is how to reuse the knowledge they have and, in the same
> moment, transmit the message "Squeak is different".
>
> LIST OF CHANGES:
> - Docking Bars:  We have support for docking-bars with most of the
> features you can find in gnome, kde, windoze and mac equivalents.
>
> - Main Docking Bar: One special case of the docking bars is the new
> World Main Docking Bar.  It's a mix of main-menu and main-toolbar
> omnipresent in all the project. (Preference, local to project,
> #showWorldMainDockingBar)
>
>
>
> It's one of the keys in the new look&feel trying to make explicit the
> most important Squeak's features.  The first menu option, in the top
> left corner, includes options to impact Squeak as a whole.... the other
> endpoint, the top right corner, includes options to impact on the
> Selected Object or to select an object if none is selected (using a
> still not developed "Objects Hierarchy" tool).
>
> - Selected Object: We created a new idiom about the selected object.
> The selected object is not more than the object surrounded by its halo,
> but the politic to remove the halos got relaxed (with the new preference
> #maintainHalos).
>
> - EasySelection + SelectionMorph changes: A lot of changes was made to
> make the selection an easier task. (preference #easySelection).
>
> - Yellow button menu (aka morph context menu):  The most common options
> for any morph are present in its context/yellowButton menu.  In
> noviceMode the red handle in Halo will open the same menu than the
> yellowButton.   The SelectedObject button on the main docking bar (the
> top right corner) will show exactly the same options.  I will use the
> Ned'd stuff as the foundation.  (STILL NOT MADE)
>
> - Selected Object Tools: We need tools to impact on the selected object
> like Color changers, Geometry changers, Font changers, etc. (STILL NOT
> MADE)
>
> - (over)use of noviceMode preference: Any novice user, the default for
> Small-Land image, will see a limited but consistent set of options and
> the goal is to make Squeak unbreakable for novices users removing
> dangerous handles in halo, making the docking bars
> unmovable/undeletable, etc, etc.
>
> - Expert Users:  The expert user will have the full power at hands,
> including the possibility to break Squeak in several and funny ways....
> That means: expert users will access to every option in Squeak, just
> like now. The menu in the main docking bar, for the experts, is
> intended  to replace the current world's menu.
>
> FINAL COMMENTS:
> - Everything is a preference: Absolute every new feature is governed by
> a new preference.
>
> - Docking bars are morph-intrusive: The special layout for docking bars
> are a little bit intrusive with Morph and friends, specially with flaps.
>
> - Work to do: To finish the first planned cycle the morph-context-menu
> (yellow button menu) has to be done as well as its integration with the
> main docking bar.
>
> - A secondary (but important) effect of these changes is that Squeak is
> now 100% usable (from a novice POV) with mouses with only 1 button, or
> but a pen in tablets!
>
> HOW TO PLAY WITH IT:
> If you like the risk, you can play with the new stuff following the next
> steps:
>
> 1) Download
> http://www.small-land.org/squeak38/SqueakSmallLand38-0324-1103.zip
> 2) Answer "SI" (yes in spanish) to the question about updating your
> image.
> 3) Answer "SI" to the question about saving the changes from the update
> process.
> 4) Use the option named "poner el idioma..." (set language) from the
> "Configuration" menu in the main docking bar.
>
> If you want to explore the code, see the changesets starting from
> 1043-WantsToBeTopmost-Refactor-dgd.
>
>
> Comments, critics, etc are ALWAYS welcomed....
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- Diego
>
> > hi all
> >
> > Diego is working on a new look and feel based on his experiences with
> > users.
> > You can see a preliminary results at:
> > http://swiki.agro.uba.ar/small_land/uploads/234/squeak38.png
> > I should say that I really like the consistent artwork.
> >
> > The question is how do we handle that? I would like that interested
> > parties (etoyers and others)
> > expressed themselves on the topic.
> >
> > I see the following alternative:
> > 	- (1) using this look as default
> > 	- (2) having it loadable as a separate package
> >
> > I favor (1) since it improves the general look of squeak and that this
> > way lot of people can help maintaining it.
> > But if people wants to go for 2, I think that this is important to have
> > the same idea (separating enh that should go in and the one that stay
> > in a separate package).
> > So again I think that this is important that we have a clear plan so
> > that diego does not get frustrated by misunderstanding.
> >
> >
> > Stef