hi all, i know, that it is a common practice to use the language for configuration, and i think for most projects it really does make sense. programs in the nova language have two different representations, though, the xml representation of the saved patch and the graphical representation of the loaded patch. from my point of view, using nova patches as configuration files, lacks the expressive power of a simple text file (asynchronous, indirection, text-file readability).
there were some opinions about "fancy" or "pretty" gui features. i think we have to (try to) differentiate between "personal style" and "readability/usability". the personal style differs, but there are some points in terms of readability, that can definitely be used to evaluate certain features: - the bezier-curved connections for example increases the readability of patches. http://klingt.org/~tim/readability.png shows an example, showing two functionally equivalent patches ... the curved connections are way more readable ... using straight lines, one connection would be hidden - highlighting hovered connections, is also a very handy feature, as it provides an immediate visual feedback - i am not sure, how the round xlets increase the patch readability, though. http://klingt.org/~tim/xlets.png shows one of the help patches in both versions. they look definitely more fancy than my ugly xlet boxes, but the boxes are visually more discrete than the circles. in one case (bang -> list resize 4410), the circles even have a worse readability than the boxes, as the connection is not visible, when objects are placed too close together. in general, i prefer to have a clean and readable interface. "clean" and "fancy" are not mutual exclusive, though especially when "fancy" increases the expressive power. we should also think about, which features should be customizable. we should have some discussions about use cases and evaluate the expressive power of different proposals. if one approach can be judged as more powerful, why making it customizable :) cheers, tim -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 96771783 http://tim.klingt.org Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius
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