mitroo@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Varun Mitroo) (01/27/91)
I've had a cube since last November, and some problems with the user interface really bother me: 1st, Click to focus. I know this was heavily debated earlier, but what has been the outcome? Personally, I like move to focus, but I can see how this would be a problem with the NeXT - the menus for the different programs would keep changing if you move the mouse over different windows. It's really annoying to have to first click in a window before being able to select something in that window. In particular, this is troublesome with browser windows when you want to select a file. You first have to select the window by clicking in it. Then you have to click on the filename to highlight it. I sometimes end up clicking on the file before I make the window active, so that mouse click just activates the window and brings it to the front. I then have to click on the file again to highlight it. Anyway, the point is that sometimes the two mouse clicks accidentally open that file rather than just highlighting it. I don't really mind click to focus, but what really bothers me is that clicking anywhere in a window brings it to the front, hiding any overlapping windows. Why can't clicking in a window activate it, and maybe clicking on the drag bar or double-clicking would bring it to the front. The NeXT has a nice, large screen, but I feel like I have to constantly rearrange windows to avoid any overlap. When all these problems really become noticable is when copying something between two windows. First, you have to activate the window to copy from - bringing it to the front over other windows, then you have to highlight what you want to copy, then you have to choose 'copy' from the 'edit' options (or press command-c), then you have to click on the window you want to copy into (possibly having to move the window you are copying from because now it is above the window you want to copy into). Finally, you have to position the pointer where you want it, click the mouse button to move the cursor there, and choose 'paste' from the 'edit' menu (or press command-v). I have used X-Windows on SPARCstations many times, and there you just highlight whatever you want to copy from one window (without having to click in it to activate it and without having it magically come in front of other windows), click on the place where you want it copied to, and press the *middle* mouse button. That's it. No need to rearrange windows or click in windows to activate them. The NeXT interface may look a lot nicer than X, may be much more cleanly written, and may be much more standardized across applications, but it really falls short on functionality because of these problems (which SHOULD be very easy to fix.) One idea is to make move to focus work as soon as a mouse button or key is pressed in a different window. Also, windows should NOT come to the front just because they are active - there should be a gadget to press to make it do that. One last complaint about the interface. Whenever applications not in the dock are launched, icons appear at the bottom of the screen for each program. These also appear when you iconify any open windows. After a while, you may quit an application, and its icon disappears from the screen - leaving a "hole" where its icon used to be. As you launch more and more applications and quit them, these icons move across the bottom of the screen and then start back at the left above the first row. It should be very easy to make the workspace check for any open positions (holes) before putting an icon for a new application or window at the bottom of the screen. Other little extras that would be nice: a screen blanker (running some movie like 'bezier' or 'spotlight'), a way to automatically load in a background picture when logging in rather than having to run 'scene', a way to display windows without borders for moving or resizing (like a clock that is put on screen when logging in - this would not take up a place in the dock like 'preferences' does and could also be bigger than the size of an icon), having sounds tied in with certain functions of the workspace - this point has already been discussed. Varun Mitroo mitroo@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu
tgingric@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Tyler S Gingrich) (01/28/91)
In article <1991Jan26.200500.22284@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> mitroo@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Varun Mitroo) writes: > >I've had a cube since last November, and some problems with the user interface >really bother me: 1st, Click to focus. I know this was heavily debated earlier > ... [stuff removed] ... > >I don't really mind click to focus, but what really bothers me is that clicking >anywhere in a window brings it to the front, hiding any overlapping windows. >Why can't clicking in a window activate it, and maybe clicking on the drag >bar or double-clicking would bring it to the front. The NeXT has a nice, large >screen, but I feel like I have to constantly rearrange windows to avoid any >overlap. > As long as we're back to discussing interfaces again, how about - single-click to focus - double-click to focus & move to front This would avoid a 'philosophy change and system rewrite' that a move to point-to-focus would require while eliminating the constant need to rearrange windows (maybe this would require a 'philosophy change and system rewrite' too). Tyler PS: How's this for an ego trip...... Macintosh - The computer for the rest of us. NeXT - The computer for the best of us. :-) :-) :-) (for the humor impaired)
waltrip@capd.jhuapl.edu (01/29/91)
In article <1991Jan26.200500.22284@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu>, mitroo@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Varun Mitroo) writes: > [...some material deleted...] > > I don't really mind click to focus, but what really bothers me is that > clicking > anywhere in a window brings it to the front, hiding any overlapping windows. > Why can't clicking in a window activate it, and maybe clicking on the drag > bar or double-clicking would bring it to the front. The NeXT has a nice, > large > screen, but I feel like I have to constantly rearrange windows to avoid any > overlap. > Lot of good points in this post which nicely avoided the religions aspects of this issue. The GUI I'm used to is DECwindows which is a click-to-focus environment so naturally I'm comfortable with it. But this point about bringing-to-front being tied in with focus does cause problems. In DECwindows, there's a put-behind box associated with the window dressing. Seems like this is an area where "good ideas" might be welcome as suggestions. [...more material deleted...] > > One idea is to make move to focus work as soon as a mouse button or key > is pressed in a different window. Also, windows should NOT come to the front > just because they are active - there should be a gadget to press to make it do > that. > Seems reasonable to me. [...more material deleted...] c.f.waltrip Internet: <waltrip@capsrv.jhuapl.edu> Opinions expressed are my own.