uucigj@swbatl.sbc.com (Greg Jensen - UCI - 5-3531) (08/11/90)
I would like to find out more about style guides and have a few questions.
What is the definition/description of a style guide.
At what phase of programming is it best used? (design phase?)
At the present time is there more than one type of style guide published or
written down (I have seen something on Open Look).
If there is more than one, what are they (or are they to numerous to
mention)?
Between the different style guides are the differences major of minor.
How do Open Look and Motif differ in the style guide. This may be lengthy
if there has been something written down or published I would like some
pointers to where I might find it.
Has a style guide been written up for Motif?
Thanks for any help.
Gregg Jensen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
These opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect my companies.
Southwestern Bell Telephone, but in this case they might.
Send E-MAIL to the following address...
...!uunet!swbatl!uucigj
- or you can try -
uucigj%gandalf.sbc.com@uunet.uu.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------- vania@osf.ORG (Vania Joloboff) (08/13/90)
> At the present time is there more than one type of style guide published or > written down ? Yes. I know at least those: Motif Style Guide IBM CUA Style Guide, the Style Guide for Presentation Manager. DEC-Windows Style Guide Apple/MacIntosh Style Guide > Has a style guide been written up for Motif? Yes. OSF/Motif Style Guide, ISBN 0-13-640491-X, edited by Prentice-Hall But at this point, you might want to wait two weeks to get the new version of the Style Guide, which includes a fairly extended model for keyboard navigation. > Between the different style guides are the differences major of minor. > How do Open Look and Motif differ in the style guide ? I'll give one, choose if it's major or minor :-) OpenLook uses mouse buttons 1 for select, 2 to adjust, 3 for menus Motif and CUA use button 1 for select, 2 for move/drag, 3 for menus. Adjust in Motif+CUA is obtained by Shift+Select.
klee@wsl.dec.com (Ken Lee) (08/13/90)
In article <1990Aug11.161912.8235@swbatl.sbc.com>, uucigj@swbatl.sbc.com (Greg Jensen - UCI - 5-3531) writes: |> Has a style guide been written up for Motif? Open Software Foundation, *OSF/Motif Style Guide*, Prentice-Hall, 1990, ISBN 0-13-640491-X. You can order this through any bookstore. A PostScript version is included with Motif. Ken Lee DEC Western Software Laboratory, Palo Alto, Calif. Internet: klee@wsl.dec.com uucp: uunet!decwrl!klee
toml@ninja.Solbourne.COM (Tom LaStrange) (08/14/90)
|> I'll give one, choose if it's major or minor :-) |> |> OpenLook uses mouse buttons 1 for select, 2 to adjust, 3 for menus |> Motif and CUA use button 1 for select, 2 for move/drag, 3 for menus. Unless of course if you are in a motif menu bar, in which case button 1 gives you menus or if you are in the mwm title bar where button 2 gives you menus. I couldn't resist, this is one of my biggest complaints about motif consistency, I can never seem to figure out what button is supposed to do what. -- Tom (software nazi) LaStrange Solbourne Computer Inc. ARPA: toml@Solbourne.COM 1900 Pike Rd. UUCP: ...!{boulder,sun}!stan!toml Longmont, CO 80501
mls@cbnewsm.att.com (mike.siemon) (08/14/90)
In article <9008131339.AA20488@osf.osf.org>, vania@osf.ORG (Vania Joloboff) writes: > OpenLook uses mouse buttons 1 for select, 2 to adjust, 3 for menus Those are factory default settings, but users may reconfigure from the workspace manager to suit their own tastes or hardwares (e.g. 1- and 2- button rodents). There is, as Vania delicately omitted to mention :-) also an OPEN LOOK style guide, as well as a functional specification; these are published by Addison Wesley. -- Michael L. Siemon "The watchwords of creativity are m.siemon@ATT.COM slopiness, poor fit, quirky design ...!att!sfsup!mls and above all else, redundancy." standard disclaimer -- Stephen J. Gould
randy@erik.UUCP (Randy Brown) (08/17/90)
Gregg Jensen (uunet!swbatl!uucigj) writes: >Between the different style guides are the differences major of minor. > >How do Open Look and Motif differ in the style guide. This may be lengthy >if there has been something written down or published I would like some >pointers to where I might find it. We have used XView (very early), AT&T's Open Look widget set, and Motif. One of our goals is to produce a set of applications consistent enough that users need learn only domain-specific differences. One hope is that by using a "commercial standard" UI spec, this same consistency could be achieved with others' applications as well, allowing our users (and support staff) to concentrate on application-domain problems, not on UI questions. The Open Look style guide was encouragingly useful. We could settle arguments with it. We have never settled an argument with the Motif style guide, and I am not hopeful that applications produced by different groups using this style guide will be useful in mixed sets without requiring an effort at mental gear-changing by the users. We are now experimenting with using the IBM SAA Common User Access Advanced Interface Design Guide (SC26-4582-0) as a style guide with Motif. Please, no flames from UI experimenters. That's not what we are doing. We're just simple folks trying to get through the day WITHOUT doing UI research and without having pointless, uninformed arguments about details of UI design.
toml@solbourne.COM (08/17/90)
> > Unless of course if you are in a motif menu bar, in which case button 1 > > gives you menus > Note that this is probably true for any consistent GUI, by semantics > of cascade buttons. When you select a cascade parent (with select > button), its semantics are to display the cascade, namely the pull > down. > This is different of calling a menu about an object. The semantics of > pressing the menu button on a menu bar would be to call a menu on the > menubar, for example a menu to change the colors/fonts in the menu bar. I understand the select semantics, but from a novice user's point of view, menus come up on different mouse buttons depending on the context. They won't care about semantics, they want to be able to find their menus. > > or if you are in the mwm title bar where button 2 gives you menus. > This is not mwm default behavior. You or someone else has "customized" > the button bindings to implement this behavior... I'm not familiar with how to customize mwm but I would guess that the following lines in my /usr/lib/X11/system.mwmrc file are causing the problems. > Buttons PointerButtonBindings > { > <Btn1Down> frame|icon f.raise > <Btn2Down> frame|icon f.post_wmenu > <Btn3Down> frame|icon f.lower I did not get Motif/mwm from OSF. I got binaries from ICS, perhaps they changed the default bindings. Can anyone send me a system.mwmrc file they got from OSF? I would like to run mwm in its default configuration. Thanks, Tom LaStrange Solbourne Computer Inc. ARPA: toml@Solbourne.COM 1900 Pike Rd. UUCP: ...!{boulder,sun}!stan!toml Longmont, CO 80501
vania@osf.ORG (Vania Joloboff) (08/17/90)
> Unless of course if you are in a motif menu bar, in which case button 1 > gives you menus Note that this is probably true for any consistent GUI, by semantics of cascade buttons. When you select a cascade parent (with select button), its semantics are to display the cascade, namely the pull down. This is different of calling a menu about an object. The semantics of pressing the menu button on a menu bar would be to call a menu on the menubar, for example a menu to change the colors/fonts in the menu bar. > or if you are in the mwm title bar where button 2 gives you menus. This is not mwm default behavior. You or someone else has "customized" the button bindings to implement this behavior... > I couldn't resist I couldn't resist