OT - Squeak and the Broader Software Community
nicolas cellier
ncellier at ifrance.com
Fri Jul 7 20:56:26 UTC 2006
Once more, this thread is going to focus on the look...
As already said many times in many threads, maybe look is good to appeal new
comers...
But whether windows should be green or orange, or the button have thick
borders, oval corner or a shadow is not the more important.
What is more important is feel.
I do not know how good is Squeak UI on Mac, but windows and linux squeak feel
are not at the level we would expect such a wonderfull tool. I will take
several simple examples.
Why does the mouse wheel does not scroll lists but instead flash? Why does the
pageUp and pageDown keys also flash the list instead of selecting one page up
or down? Is there multiple selection list working with kind of shift+click or
control+click?
How can i switch keyboard focus from one pane to another, or change window
stack order without using the mouse?
Did you really try to copy/paste text from squeak to another application et
vice et versa? switching from ALT+C to CTRL+V, or the contrary is really is
gymnastic for user hands and brain... That is obviously why a little bit of
standardization does not harm.
My personnal opinion is that among palo alto inventions, the mouse was not the
greatest. Hands are wonderfull tools with a lot of articulations. Compare how
many articulations are working when hitting the keyboard and how many when
using the mouse... You will understand why many feel the mouse as a handicap.
And why many are still using emacs vi and mc.
So, when you say "the look does not matter", or Squeak UI is great, please
don't forget the feel. Lot of people won't find mouse-centric UI that great.
Nicolas
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