Re: ColorSync utility question
Re: ColorSync utility question
- Subject: Re: ColorSync utility question
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 00:20:32 EST
David Hayward wrote:
[many fine things...]
Ah, the man behind the curtain in the land of ColorSync Oz! Thanks for your
response to the list - it's nice to know that Apple really is listening, and
particularly someone at Apple who is in a position to improve things.
I looked through a lot of the Utilities that Apple ships with OS X. Most do
not make use of multiple "browser"-type windows. When you run the app, you
get one window, +/- a tool bar and +/- "tabs." A notable exception is the Disk
Utility app. With Disk Utility, one can open mutiple windows with identical
toolbars (as well as "tabs") by going to File--> New Window. Why? Not
sure... You can Verify multiple disks from one window by selecting multiple
disks. You could potentially run Verify in one window and Repair in another.
(Why? No idea.) Without thinking, I clicked on Enable Journaling, expecting some
information or warning, and was met by the dreaded gray screen and multiple
languages in white text instructing me to "Hold the power button down for 3
seconds..." to re-start. Boy, was that fun!
My point is that you probably don't need multiple "browser" windows with
toolbars that give the user the opportunity to do nonsensical operations or
potentially harmful operations. Conceptually, it doesn't make sense. I know the
trend is "non-modal" but there are times when it's the right thing to do. System
Prefs is a good example. You only get one window, with one toolbar and tabs
that change appropriately as you click on different icons (Displays,
Monitors, etc.) You can't run Software Update while you change Security settings.
I think the interface needs to be re-thought, in terms of how to best
integrate the wealth of information that you make available. Does every window need
a toolbar? Steve Upton's ColorThink uses a floating toolbar, independent of
the windows. This seems to me a better approach, in that it's not possible to
attempt things that don't make sense, like running Verify and Repair
simultaneously from different windows, or setting Preferences simultaneously from
different windows. It's easy to choose which profile(s) to plot. You have many
excellent components - it's just the organization and accessability that's
confusing. On the profiles panel, perhaps you could have the 3-D graphing in a
separate window, and replace the real estate currently occupied by the 3-D
graph with the tag info/plots that are currently only available by
double-clicking a profile. Add a checkbox for "3-D Plot." There are a lot of
possibilities, but I think the overall organization needs to be re-thought. Divorcing the
Profile Manager from the toolbar containing the Prefs, etc. might be helpful.
Perhaps put those things in old-fashioned Menus, then there's no problem
with multiple Profile windows... Take a weekend and play with the ideas...
Then there are the "meat" issues that Chris and others have brought up with
the PDF/Filters stuff. I, too have no idea what Compression-->Flate means, or
what "convolution" is supposed to do in this context. White paper???
Thanks for listening!!!
--Rich
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