barnett@grymoire.steinmetz (Bruce Barnett) (03/05/88)
User interfaces tend to start religious wars. Especially when we have people on the net whom have only used one interface proficiently. I am not saying that what you do is WRONG, but merely what *I* like. It is very hard to visualize a sophisicated user interface from these articles. So bear with me. In article <346@esquire.UUCP> sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) writes: |I don't know. Having used 1, 2, and 3 buttons, I find I like 1 button |most of all First of all - did you have a DECENT 3-button window system, and did you learn how to use it effectively? Saying a one-button system is better that all three button systems is silly, because a flexible window system can allow you to emulate a one-button system. And if you want to take a pair of pliers to your three button mouse to perform a button-ectomy - fine! :-) But three button systems, with a flexible window system, have - to me - several advantages. For instance - I like the ability to move, resize, hide, expose, open or close a window by grabbing the window anywhere along the edge and hitting the proper combination of keys and buttons. Don't some window systems do a window resize by grabbing a special (fixed) part of the frame? And moving a window is another spot on the frame? And of course that part of the frame must be exposed. Maybe you like this. Hokay. But I would be frustrated because if I want to move and resize a window, I can't do both using any corner that's exposed. I have to expose the proper spot move the mouse to that corner ( say lower right). perform the resize ( assume the upper left corner stays fixed). move the mouse to another corner perform the move put the window back to the proper top-to-bottom position.. Given a flexible window system what I would like to do to make the same window larger - but leave the (say) lower right corner fixed, is to : Move mouse to upper left corner and press the proper buttons. move the mouse to the proper position and let go of the buttons. I would think that pull-down menus would also slow me down. Why move the mouse up to the top when all of my choices could be known by leaving the mouse in the same spot and pressing the button that gives you the pop-up menus? And I would bind the other buttons on the mouse to act as accelerators, so I wouldn't have to use the pop-up menus except for rare occassions. |On the other hand, what do multi-button, popup menu people think about |the new tear-off menus in Hypercard (I like them)? What are tear-off menus? -- Bruce G. Barnett <barnett@ge-crd.ARPA> <barnett@steinmetz.UUCP>
diamant@hpfclp.HP.COM (John Diamant) (03/10/88)
> Pull-down menus allow for that wonderfully simple *1* button mouse.
Pull-down menus do not allow for a 1 button mouse more than other menus.
Pull-down menus are nothing more than a hierarchical menu (like cascading
or walking menus) which can only be activated from a particular hotspot.
I see no difference functionally (in terms of the number of mouse buttons
you need) in a system that uses pull-down menus and one that uses
a pop-up cascading menu only available from a title bar.
John Diamant
SDE UUCP: {hplabs,hpfcla}!hpfclp!diamant
Hewlett-Packard Co. ARPA Internet: diamant%hpfclp@hplabs.HP.COM
Fort Collins, COdlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David Williams) (03/16/88)
/ hpsmtc1:comp.windows.misc / jeff@polyslo.UUCP (Jeff Weinstein) / 6:07 pm Mar 11, 1988 / In article <5723@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Pierce T. Wetter) writes: > In other words, they'd never seen anything _but_ the mac environment so they >must of copied the mac interface exactly. If they'd never seen a star they >couldn't have copied it. QED. >PIerce Wetter Jeff Weinstein responds: >> Are you saying that no one at DRI was capable of an original thought or >>even a bit of creativity? That they must have copied everything from Apple >>if they did not copy it from Xerox? If so you might post some evidence of th>>is. And I answer that in this case the answer is *YES*! I remember seeing the adds that DRI had the nerve to run which not only showed their *MacPaint Clone* with its screen saying Hi instead of Apples add with Macpaint saying "Hello". Then DRI has their Desktop look exactly the same as Apple's with a pull down menues, Disk Icons on the top right hand side of the screen and a trash can on the lower right side. About the only thing they did not have was the Apple logo on the top left of the screen where they had *Desk Accessories*. It is one thing to be influenced by or improve upon an existing technology, but to mimic it completely, right down to the advertising campaign is *ASKING* for a lawsuit. DRI was guilty of being lazy, they should have gone to Xerox in the first place and come out with something superior to the Apple interface and not merely a pale clone. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% David L. Williams | HyperCard Jedi dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM | & ...!hplabs!hpda!dlw | Un*x Novice (X Windows here I come!) ______________________________________________________________________________ Hewlett Packard <- Nope, they're my opinions, not Hp's! Software Development Technology Laboratory DCE/User Interface Project Somewhere in Cupertino CA Mailstop: 47LR "What if...Apple put a SPARC on a Nubus card?" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
alexande@drivax.UUCP (Mark Alexander) (03/19/88)
In article <13650003@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David Williams) writes: >DRI was guilty of being lazy, they should have gone to Xerox in >the first place and come out with something superior to the Apple interface >and not merely a pale clone. Actually, DRI did a graphical interface before GEM that was quite different, or so I've been told by people who saw it. These same folks said it was better than the Mac-clone GEM turned out to be. It sounded to me like GEM was another case of what happens to a good product when marketing geniuses get their hands on it. Disclaimer: everything in this posting is probably wrong, including this disclaimer. -- Mark Alexander (UUCP: amdahl!drivax!alexande) "Bob-ism: the Faith that changes to meet YOUR needs." --Bob