The Transcendental GUI (was a thread from REALbasic vs. Revolution)

[Rob Cozens]

>One of the challenges I've had in researching this article is finding
>examples of popular platform-independent GUIs which take liberties with
>OS-specific guidelines.

Hi again, Richard,

I knew your message was important the first time I read it, and in 
the light of another day & another reading I am only more impressed, 
not only by your insight but also by your ability to present your 
thoughts sans the emotionalism I can't keep out of the subject.

It seems to me we are reaching a point where the goal of the O/S 
providers is to create a "look & feel" that people would prefer to 
see when running Microsoft Office over the look & feel of MS Office 
running on another platform.  As you so aptly point out, that goal 
may not be in the best interest of application developers.

I suspect you will be hard pressed to find many more examples that 
meet your criteria; that was why I suggested you take the more 
difficult approach of looking at the techniques preferred by 
non-programmers (eg: HyperCarders) in designing stacks.  It might 
also be interesting to review the design of Unix apps: my expectation 
is there are less stringent interface guidelines on Unix platforms.

In any case, if you have the time (or the research assistant), I'll 
be happy to send you several hundred HyperCard stacks, mostly done by 
AOL subscribers.
-- 

Rob Cozens
CCW, Serendipity Software Company
http://www.oenolog.com/who.htm

"And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three;
Who are a little wise, the best fooles bee."

from "The Triple Foole" by John Donne (1572-1631)