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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Usability and open source
From:       John Summerfield <summer () OS2 ! ami ! com ! au>
Date:       2000-01-30 22:47:28
[Download RAW message or body]

> On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> > On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, Ben Last wrote:
> > 
> > > A second question: How radical is the KDE community prepared to be? 
> > > To clarify; KDE looks to me like an excellent attempt to replicate
> > > the features of the Mac and Windows desktops.  Is the KDE developer
> > > community interested in moving KDE *ahead* of those other systems,
> > > rather than tracking them?  I mean in terms of interface, of course;
> > 
> > I welcome every improvement whatever its origin is.
> 
> I'm pretty sure he's asking if the KDE developer community is prepared to
> attack the HI problem head-on with radical new innovations or if it's merely
> willing to siphon the features from the MacOS and Windows to essentially
> be a clone.
> 
> Of course, Ben, what you're asking is that there be an HI R&D team or if
> there is one. Apple used to retain a team for this very purpose, but has
> since long disbanded it. The result? Copland. Phew! That was a commercial
> success. I'm pretty sure that with Open Source development communities
> behind something similar, though, it would probably work. As Apple taught
> us it's difficult to build a door if you've never opened one.
> 
> OTOH, what's radical anymore? DnD was radical, but now people expect it.
> Trash was stolen by Recycle Bin was stolen by Trash (Be) which was again
> stolen by Trash (KDE) and so on and so forth. No radical innovation there.
> Is Aqua radical? Can Aqua be radical, might be a better question. I'd say
> that Window-specific dialogs is rather innovative, but by no means radical
> or even new, more of an evolution.

OS/2 Warp Version 3 (subsequently replaced by Warp 4) seems pretty radical 
compared with that.

OS/2 has extended attributes. I can use a text editor (EPM) to apply 
formatting information to a C source program. That information is 
invisible to any program that simply reads the file because extended 
attributes are external to the file.

On OS/2 files are objects; a programmer can subclass a WPDataFile and 
create a wordprocessing document (Footprint did this & created Footprint 
Works, later IBM Works). Open a folder containing a Wordprocessor document 
and you can
a	Open it; it starts the wordprocessor
b	Print it; it fires up the workdprocessor to format & print it
c	Drag it onto a printer object; result as in b.

This works, not by so-called mime file-types (which is just a hack), but 
because it's built into the nature of the document.

The neatest printer install I ever saw was this:
I downloaded the Canon printer bundle from IBM. I opened the bundle; it 
opened just like a folder. I dragged out the icon for my printer onto the 
desktop (actually, a folder on the desktop). Done. Printer installed.

Then, of course, I had to edit its settings (properties) to tell it it was 
connected to lpt1:, has a4 paper etc.


-- 
Cheers
John Summerfield
http://os2.ami.com.au/os2/ for OS/2 support.
Configuration, networking, combined IBM ftpsites index.

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