revEnterprise dp-5 / revMedia beta / revWeb beta

[Richard Gaskin]

Richmond Mathewson wrote:

> Thomas McGrath III wrote:
>> Having survived SuperCard's web plugin and 'Windows' version, I still 
>> am very optimistic. We already have something much more than the SC 
>> plugin and with a path to further features and possibilities. I 
>> understood this to be 'final' but with many updates after that.
>>
>> 2 cents
> Well, I am fantasizing about the RunRev team getting as cheesed-off as I 
> am by my negative flack and releasing a version
> where palettes finction perfectly as a way to get me to shut-up . . .    :)

Maybe my thinking is too conventional on this, but the range of 
potential issues with palettes running from a browser plugin would seem 
to reach beyond the merely technical into the cognitive:

User expectations of the browser experience are well honed from a decade 
of relatively consistent exposure to a common set of conventions.  While 
the content and specific interactions within a page will vary from site 
to site, users are very accustomed to seeing things for a specific page 
within that page, often as movable layers but rarely as separate windows.

The benefit to this approach is that it keeps all of a web app's parts 
in one place.  Most users today have multiple tabs open, and it's not 
uncommon for them to switch between them while they're browsing.

If a palette window is opened from a Revlet in one tab, what does that 
palette do when the user switches to another tab?

Presumably it wouldn't attempt to affect anything in the current tab's 
page, but since the page with the Revlet is no longer in view the user 
has no way to know how interacting with the palette will affect what's 
on that page.

In desktop apps, when you switch to another application palettes are 
automatically hidden; they're in front only when the relevant app is in 
front, but once that app goes to the background there's no way to use 
palettes to accidentally alter the content of a window that may not be 
visible.

While browsers provide notification when a page is being closed, I don't 
believe they provide notification when another tab is selected (do 
they?).  This would make it difficult to know when to hide and show your 
  palettes, leaving parts of your app overlaying the rest of the browser 
experience.

Having Revlets open new Rev stack windows was a nifty option, but I'm 
not sure I'll miss it much.  There are more conventional ways to get the 
same benefits, ways that arguably better meet user expectations by 
keeping all of your app's parts together on one page.

A nice a flourish as those stack windows were, offhand I can't think of 
anything I would truly need to use them for that I can't do with a group 
on the card in a way that looks and feels a bit more like a web app.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com
  revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv