On Dec 23, 2009, at 2:04 PM, Aristotle Pagaltzis wrote:
* Chris Devers <[email protected]> [2009-12-23 20:25]:
The problem, of course, is that Spaces fucks this up royally,
as it seems to take a drunken, blindfolded dartboard approach
to window management that is best used with grim resignation
and willingness to accept such mere considerations as window
focus as little unexpected gifts of manna from the Apple OS
gods.
But it's really not that bad if you just pretend Spaces never
happened.
I have the distinct impression that the MacOS UI design is past
its due date. While not always to my preference, I can appreciate
the thoughtful coherency of the original design (top menu bar, no
click-through, application-centric windowing model, etc.).
Actually, applications can opt-into receiving clicks in the
background -- the Finder does this to good effect so you can drag an
icon without bringing its window forward -- but your point is well-made.
At least, the Finder does that *sometimes*. In column view, it works
if you drag the tiny icon in the list, but clicking the nice big
juicy 128x128-pixel target in the preview pane brings the window
forward when you start a drag. Which, ignoring the inconsistency for
a moment, wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't completely lobotomized
the shelf.
But all of these decisions fall apart at the resolutions that are
now becoming common. The top of the screen is no longer just one
wrist flick away from the pointer; having the menu bar on only
one screen if several are attached severely degrades the utility
of the extra screens; the application-centric metaphor is kinda
tied to the top-of-screen menu bar; it doesn't gracefully extend
to virtual desktops... The whole thing just no longer works.
It was well-designed for a medium resolution, single monitor,
no virtual desktops UI, which was what the Mac had for 20 years.
But that is now in the past.
Apple started from scratch for the iPhone, and given the above
there clearly was good reason. I wonder if they can bring
themselves to now start over with MacOS X too...
One thing that would help is to lose the concept of 'application'.
This is a quarter-century-old technology for selling software in
shrink-wrapped boxes on a shelf in a brick-and-mortar store.
Free Unix distributions don't depend on applications. Whereas in
Mail I can browse a mailbox, view a message, compose a message, send,
receive, and review my previous recipients, in Unix these functions
could each be implemented by a different program, or programs. And
you're not stuck with the useless spam filter that shipped with all
the other parts.
We need workspaces, not applications.
Josh
