Striped Background in OS X Revisited

[Scott Kane]

----- Original Message ----- 

> Some of the most loyal MS enthusiasts have set them back the farthest. I 
> remember reading an early Windows C programming book by a leading MS API 
> author (Pretzold maybe?) who described the then-new Windows GUI as if it 
> were some sort of necessary evil that was going to require a lot more work 
> from developers than DOS, rather than as a revolution to be embraced.

Yes.  That was pretty much the consensus at that time.  A lot of it came 
from the incredible overhead needed in managing windows instead of overlays 
(which was trivial in DOS).  It wasn't until tools like VB, Delphi and later 
C++ Builder that this became easier (easier than in DOS actually) to manage 
windows etc.

> Fortunately for both the Windows-only crowd and us multi-platform folks, 
> MDI is fading away.  The Win guidelines released shortly after Win 95 
> officially deprecated MDI, although in their classic Do As I Say Not As I 
> Do form they've used it for years since.  But the reasoning given for the 
> deprecation was sound:  MDI is a sort of mixed metaphor, and in testing 
> users find it measurably more confusing than SDI or multi-pane 
> alternatives.

It's fading for certain - but the core desktop is still based on the 
principle which causes many issues.  To design single interfaces with one 
window that has mutiple functions (imbedded windows) takes a lot of coding 
for most languages - as opposed to Rev where it is automatic due to the 
stack and card paradigm.

> It may take a while to see the eventual purging of legacy MDIs from common 
> use, but it bodes well for us multi-platform types:

Indeed.  One of the biggest challenges in designing a complex cross platform 
UI is how differently each platform address' it.  On a Mac the menu bar is a 
known and expected quantity and part of the Mac "experience".  All users 
know it can (and probably does) contain additional tools and modules. 
However on Windows (and to some degree *nix) the menu is frequently ignored 
as toolbars tend to rule and users fail to intuit the menu bar.

> Apple's already standardized on Intel processors and multi-button mouse 
> functionality.  When the Windows crowd drops MDI completely and Apple 
> moves the menu bar to the top of the window, most significant differences 
> between GUIs will do away.  There will still be room for distinction, but 
> it will be more like comparing different cars than comparing cars and 
> trucks.

I'm not sure how this move from menu at top of desktop to menu at top of 
window is going to go over.  One of the things about the menu on window is 
the room for breaking standards and reducing intuition.  As a programmer I 
can see real benefits - but I'm not so sure users currently will see those 
same benefits.  The way most Mac users interface with their desktop is very 
different to how Windows users do it.  I'm not saying your wrong - rather 
it's fraught with some risk in usability.

> As GUIs continue the inevitable adoption of universal standards, our work 
> becomes ever easier.

That is certainly true.

> That is, until something comes along that has such revolutionary new and 
> compelling benefits over current GUIs as the GUI did over the command 
> line.  Then we'll have another two decades of challenges until the world 
> standardizes once again.

Indeed.  But I do wonder what that is.

> Thanks.  With just a little visibility I'd like to believe that the two 
> most pervasive hurdles to cross-platform HIG compliance (window 
> backgrounds and system fonts) can be simple set-once-and-forget-about-it 
> properties in v2.9.

Fonts are a very important one.  Rev renders fonts terribly in Windows IMHO 
but is superb under OSX.

> To RunRev to do anything less would make life harder than it needs to be 
> for their company.

I agree!

Scott