[Now OT] Re: Tunneling mouse events through windows?
[Now OT] Re: Tunneling mouse events through windows?
- Subject: [Now OT] Re: Tunneling mouse events through windows?
- From: Phillip Hutchings <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:51:42 +1300
Well, not all of it. OS X is very much a 'you stupid user, you can't
do it
that way. You HAVE to do it this way, and you will like it.'
Ever used Windows? Almost every app has different ways of doing things.
There are currently 3 distinct GUIs, 'Classic' (9x/me) compatibility,
32bit clean (NT/2k/XP) and .NET. None of them respond the same, ie on
'classic' windows when you tab between buttons the default moves, but
with .NET it doesn't.
Don't forget that everybody's definition of a good UI is different. I
side with Apple, define a way to do things, and stick to it. It makes a
new application so much easier to learn. Personally, I think there is
room for improvement, and time will show. OS X is a relatively immature
OS, only on its third public release. Windows XP is NT 5.5, 95 was
Windows 4. OS 9 was, well OS 9.
Things like:
- needing a kernel extension to get back the use of my function keys.
I agree in a way, but I rarely use my function keys, even though
they're set up with useful shortcuts (eg save, new, print), because the
shortcuts themselves are much more convenient to my fingers. I'd say
brightness and display settings would be more often used by me. That
sort of thing should, IMO, be a preference.
- why is so much space wasted in a finder window just because it has
to be
Metal. To use the improved navigation parts of the Finder, you need
to give
up a bunch of screen real estate dedicated to displaying a nice silver.
Seen Windows Explorer in XP? I know you can get rid of most of the
stuff, but address bar, annoying side bar that doesn't do anything
useful, tendency to open full screen so drag&drop is hard... I'm
willing to put up with Metal wasting a good 12 pixels for a sidebar
that's functional. I've found that I can find things much faster now,
especially as I have my server folders on the sidebar, and clicking it
mounts the drive automatically.
- 3 ways to mount a server volume, some of which can use the keychain
and
some of which will display on the desktop.
Agreed, we need ONE way. Network browsing like Windows does is all well
and good under Windows, but OS X has a different connection model. The
browser isn't a bad idea, maybe separate Samba/Appletalk/blah areas in
there (currently my fileserver has Samba and Netatalk on it, and the
shares overwrite each other's entries) and double click to connect to
the share as a drive.
- getting rid of the Dock because I have a WAY more powerful
application and
document launching/tracking utility.
I like the Dock. Each to their own, but I wish there was a published
way to get access to that power. I have a couple of cool ideas to use
with it, but I can't.
- a trash can on the desktop.
I think 'special' items on the desktop is a regression in terms of UI,
it put things where they don't actually exist. Personally, I think
Apple was right at the start when OS X had no desktop, things like
disks should be at the 'root' of the navigation, and the trash is a
system special item, so it should go with something like the dock.
Right now, you have to do some very ugly things to bend OS X to work
in a
way that many people would like it to.
Or the way YOU want it to. Or the exact way I would want it to. Not
going to happen, everyone wants something else, and it just isn't
practical for Apple to try this - there'd have to be a preference for
everyone's ideas, and you'd spend days trying to set it up (kinda like
linux really).
Well, that's my 2". My opinion, nothing more. I'm sure most of the list
disagrees with me.
Now as this is so OT, I won't send any more things about it to the
list. (hears the collective sigh of relief)
--
Phillip Hutchings
email@hidden
http://www.sitharus.com/
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