Each feature should be treated as a different application, like google,
gmail, google maps, etc...
I think there is much to be inspired by in Google's various apps, including
their clean UIs, however the fact that they are separate largely isolated
applications isn't one of them. I think Facebook is a better (although also
imperfect) source of inspiration here. Also Facebook also has the paradigm of
being connected to people, and has created metaphors around this that most
people now understand intuitively. Its always better to piggy-back on metaphors
people already understand, rather than trying to introduce new ones.
Actually i was thinking about Freenet on the background of my mind, and i have
realised that this is exactly what i'd love to be able to shut down FProxy (for
example) and keep the rest running. Sometimes i have a situation where FProxy
doesn't respond, but other parts of Freenet respond perfectly, if i wish to
restart FProxy then i must restart everything... which is a bit annoying (to say
the least).
Let's have a look at pidgin and libpurple (they use to be GAIM). Those people
spend a whole lot of time to separate the client layer from the communication
one; and the application became easier to maintain and much better all the way
around. And let's face it, not everybody who uses pidgin today is a hacker...
- Volodya
--
http://freedom.libsyn.com/ Echo of Freedom, Radical Podcast
"None of us are free until all of us are free." ~ Mihail Bakunin
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