lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (03/22/88)
In article <1759@ssc-vax.UUCP> benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) writes: > >Apple also doesn't understand this consistency either, note that >when you click (select) a file from you Mac hard disk window and drag it to >your floppy window you do a COPY. When you try to to the same only instead >make the destination directory a hard disk directory ... you MOVE. Note this >is an operating system inconsistency...it makes sense but is inconsistent. The short answer is that sometimes it is necessary to break the rules, in the name of common sense. On the Lisa, moving an icon always moved the actual document. If you wanted to copy the document to another disk you had to select the icon and duplicate it. The duplicate command was modal; the duplicate icon flashed until the user moved it somewhere. If you clicked outside the flashing icon, you got a chance to cancel the operation. On the Xerox Star (as I remember it), you would select an icon, hit the copy or move button and select the destination. This was all nice and consistent. Also on the Star you printed a document by dropping it on a printer icon. The question that arises is what happens if the user moves a document onto the printer -- does the document get printed and then deleted from the disk? >Also look at Interleaf on the Mac. Their is no enforced standard. There has never been any enforced standard. Apple does not revoke a company's certified developer status if their application doesn't follow the guidelines. Interleaf is a case where the developer decided that their target user was someone who was using Interleaf on another machine, and that they should make the Mac version havethe same interface. (It also made porting the S/W easier, because they could port more of the code.) -- Larry Rosenstein, Object Specialist Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 32E Cupertino, CA 95014 AppleLink:Rosenstein1 domain:lsr@Apple.COM UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr
chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/23/88)
>>Also look at Interleaf on the Mac. Their is no enforced standard. > >There has never been any enforced standard. Apple does not revoke a >company's certified developer status if their application doesn't follow the >guidelines. It all depends on what you mean by enforced. Apple doesn't need to enforce the interface, the users do. People who muck around badly with the interface don't sell product. People who muck around well with the interface sell well and have their best ideas borrowed by other developers. With people voting with their pocket books, who needs the Interface Police? Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ Speed it up. Keep it Simple. Ship it on time. -- Bill Atkinson
gillies@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu (03/23/88)
Consistency can be a real bummer.
On the Xerox Star, you can always copy or move an icon. If you
accidentally *move* a document to the printer, sure enough, star
creates a hard copy and totally destroys the document!
People think of *move* as being an operation that can be undone.
Unfortunately, there is no way to make the printer eat your document
and give you back the electronic version!
This is a classic problem in user interface design (perhaps it's
related to Godel's incompleteness theorem?) -- any sufficiently
powerful set of rules contains ambiguities that screw up consistency!
Don Gillies {ihnp4!uiucdcs!gillies} U of Illinois
{gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu}