Why is Konfabulator 'Pretty?'

[Chipp Walters]

MisterX wrote:

> Just my 2 cents after lots of aggravation trying to get this far with
> skins and porting "graphical" applications from W2K to XP to OSX... It's
> definitely not as simple or smooth as Chipp says
> IMOHO - no offence Chipp...

X,

No offense taken. For those who are HIG sticklers, you are correct. But 
remember the reason for the HIG (Human Interface Guidelines _not_ 
laws!). They were first brought about by Apple and were extremely 
important as programmers at that time knew nothing about programming 
GUIs. The HIG's where great so that programmers had an idea of where to 
start and what was good programming.

Well along came Win95 with a new 'set' of HIG's which weren't exactly 
like Apple's. So now users had to understand a bit of a different way, 
as did programmers. But no worries as things were *mostly* the same.

Then came the internet and multimedia (including HyperCard) and out the 
window went the HIGs. Now buttons could just be underlined text, and new 
modal interfaces were created by programs like HyperCard and others. 
But, funny thing is, users still figured it out! Amazing those users:-)

Now, many cross platform developers use their own GUI's and don't even 
bother with the ever changing states of Apple's or Windows (I forget, is 
brushed metal still 'in' or is it the new softer gray interface now?).

For some examples of 'non complying GUI's' which are cross-platform 
check out:

http://www.luxology.com/modo/ergonomics.aspx
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_5_infinite/
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/new/demos.shtml
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html

Some go farther than others, but all are essentially the same experience 
on both Macs and PC's. So you can see, even some of the 'big guys' 
aren't hung up on full HIG compliance.

best,

Chipp