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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: program loading
From:       Marcel Borreda <marcel.borreda () post ! rwth-aachen ! de>
Date:       1999-02-24 11:01:11
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Lars Knoll wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 24 Feb 1999, Pietro Iglio wrote:
> >At 08.00 24/02/99 +0100, you wrote:
> >>As stated before on this list several times, the metaphor of the
> >>hourglass cursor is: "Wait a minute, there is nothing You can do for the
> >>moment." This is/was true in the single task environment of M$ Win 3.x.
> >>But on KDE, You don't have to wait for a window popping up, You can do
> >>something more interesting in the meantime. The cursor gives You no
> >>hint, which program is involved in the ongoing activity and is therefore
> >>an suboptimal solution. Besides, *if* You do sth. more interesting in
> >>the meantime, entering an other app, the cursor has to restore his original
> >>shape and gives You no hint at all.
> >>
> >>During the discussion 3 better ideas has arisen,
> >>as far as I remember. Each of them takes more efforts to implement, but
> >>it's worth doing, IMHO:
> >>- animated icon in the task bar
> >>- transient window for the currently launching app
> >>- one window, that shows animated icons for all KDE apps
> >>- a blinking light in the panel
> >
> >What about a different animated cursor than hourglass? For example, an
> >arrow with a little hourglass in the right-bottom corner to mean: I'm doing
> >something but you can still use the mouse.
> 
> Why does everybody wan't to stick with this (IMO) stupid hourglass
> cursor (in whatever form...)? I don't like the idea of changing the cursor, when
> you click on something. It's one of M$ bad ideas. The cursor has no
> relation to the app I want to start, and it sort of prevents me from starting
> two apps simultaneously, since I wouldn't get a feedback for the second app...
> (since the cursor can only change once).  I'd prefer the idea of overlaying
> something on the clicked icon (and I like Waldos idea of the turning wheel the
> best, because it's known from and consistent with kfm and inuitive).
> 

I think this cursor and a completely animated (with something moving
around) Icon idea would be to overblowded. All these blinking and sounds
making things are nice to look and hear at, but after a short period of
time they get on your nerves if you like to concentrate. Obviously these
blinking things are what most users find something look professional:-)
A color effect that animates the Icon for example in the way from rising
its brightness and lowering it afterwards would be a unobstrusive way.
Or to make windows look like a program from the stonehendge, animate the
icon like the moving bar on the windows startup screen.

Ciao,
Marcel.

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