Default button placement in Linux GUIs

[Richard Gaskin]

An age-old challenge in making multi-platform apps is handling the 
placement of the default button in dialogs.

On Mac OS the confirmation control is on the right, with the cancel 
control on the left.  Bruce Tognazzini and others maintain that this 
placement is best supported by usability research.

But on Windows the action control is on the left, with the cancel 
control on the right.  In correspondence with me on this issue, Mr. 
Tognazzini suggests that in spite of research on optimal placement, 
consistency is a far bigger factor so software designers should employ 
whichever is most prevalent on the target OS.

So for us Rev folks this means that making HIG-compliant software 
requires us to write routines which flip those button positions.  Sure, 
it's a drag, but not the end of the world.

But then we come to Linux:

The Gnome HIG suggests using Apple's approach, with the confirmation 
control on the right.  But the KDE HIG suggests using the Windows 
approach with the opposite layout.

Does the Rev engine provide a way to determine which window manager it's 
running under in Linux?

If not, how can we reconcile this issue if we want to deploy our apps to 
either window manager?

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com