[squeak-dev] [Urgent][4.1.1] Squeak screen shot and backgrounds / display of pictures

Ian Trudel ian.trudel at gmail.com
Mon Apr 26 20:17:52 UTC 2010


Hello Hannes,

You have understood what I am trying to do. Thank you! The specific
screenshot you are referring to has been inspired by the background
image discussion. It's much more obvious in picture that it doesn't
make sense without image preview.

The best features are usually shown on screenshots when one tries to
sell a product. The screenshots have however been prepared in the
perspective to get help from the graphic community: it is more about
having an accurate portray of the situation. I have also created each
screenshot with similar elements for a visual comparison. Finally, I
have tried to use versions that have seen major makeover for a better
comparison over time (and it does show how slowly we evolve in term of
visual).

Smalltalk has inspired modern computing and Squeak is probably the
only multimedia oriented Smalltalk around (if we don't count forks
anyway). A powerful programming environment with incredible multimedia
capabilities but it feels flat. It is underwhelming.

It's good that you share links and references in (most) of your posts.
We're all busy and it makes life easier to us. Thanks for this too.

Ian.

2010/4/26 Hannes Hirzel <hannes.hirzel at gmail.com>:
> Hello
>
> Bert started the thread 'a little press coverage'. Actually the
> coverage is pretty good I think.
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2010-April/149615.html
>
> Then Ian pointed out that we need a good screen shot and referred to
> an example on his blog.
> http://mecenia.blogspot.com/2010/04/history-of-squeak-in-pictures.html
>
> It is just by now that I realized that there is a File List browser
> open on that screen shot showing a bitmap (BMP) file. What is
> displayed in the content windows are the codes, i.e. the picture is
> not displayed.
>
> In other threads ** in the recent days Steve Wessels was working on a
> background chooser (posted to the inbox, then the issue of the Menu
> Registry came up). In fact the regular file list browser includes a
> button 'background'. It is however very difficult to choose a
> background with it if you do not see the picture.
>
> ** For example here
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2010-April/149538.html
> and http://squeak.preeminent.org/
> (Steve's background chooser has more options like 'center' / 'Tile'
> and he is working on an updated version)
>
> As Smalltalk is the grand-daddy of graphical user interfaces it
> strikes me with horror that after 30 years I do not see a picture if I
> browse through directories with the main file explorer tool. I think
> this needs a fix ASAP if we want to expose Squeak to a wider audience.
>
> The quick fix for the time being is not to expose this deficiency in a
> screen shot. A image morph would be better. I see the necessity for a
> little maintenance release 4.1.1 which fixes this and  similar
> problems.
>
> This 4.1.1. could as well include the menu registry solution (either
> pragma or MenuSpec) and some other things e.g.  'Right-click on
> workspace stops functioning'
>
> What do other's think about this issue? Would it be an option to go
> for a 4.1.1. release within a few days? Maybe next Saturday?
> These are not really difficult things to fix. More difficult things
> might be unearthed later and that would call for a 4.1.2 two weeks
> later.....
>
> Kind regards
> Hannes
>
>



-- 
http://mecenia.blogspot.com/



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