At 10:52 PM 3/11/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Tim, >A real desktop and a standard Look and Feel are required for modern >computing platforms, it's both useful from an aesthetic view and from a >usability point... Browsers, gfx programs... why don't we have these >things on a QL? Ever tried to write something like that? I am currently >and it's a real pain as the OS doesn't help at all, ProWesS could be of >real help due to it's nice "connectivity" with its "API" but it's slow >therefore impractical...
A desktop and a "look and feel" are to separate things. WMAN is a GUI without an ingrained desktop. In writing X window programs, there is no reference to the desktop and is very similar to writing PE programs (at least with Perl/TK). Suntools was a simple desktop that did not allow for documents to be icons (only executables) (and if I remember correctly). I like the feature of the PE that does not require an actual desktop. I have found desktops to be usefull with Linux/Gnome only when I did not know much about what apps to run and used the app launcher feature on the desktop (kind of like Window->Programs->). But with SMS/QE, most of the main apps I've loaded myself so I know where they are and can easily add them to Qascade. Everybody seems to be heading the was of the desktop metaphor, but I do not like it and do not see it as a necessity. I can't think of a single requirement that would make a desktop a necessity. Tim Swenson
