Thanks for the info on GNOME. Actually, between the time I posted my message and I received your post, I have checked out GNOME. You said that the main thing that people are looking for is functionality and it looks cool. I think you hit it right on the dot on one of the areas of CHI. And that's why I was wondering about the research behind the GUI design! A high cost research in CHI does not guarantee the best GUI either. A direct quote that I mentioned earlier: "For example, the early Macintosh Apple used the Trash can icon as a metaphor for deleting files. However, one can pull items out of a trashcan until the trash person comes. The first trash can icon did not allow this retrieval. This contextual incongruity caused users many problems. As another example, the Windows 95 GUI is the most modern of all GUIs. One would expect it to be fairly well developed and relatively error free. However, of the approximately 90 complaints with Windows 95, none are performance complaints. They are all human factors type complaints, such as how to copy a file and how to get rid of annoying icons." One may argue a whole lot about the OS on which the GUI is running on here. But the topic here is GUI, not OS. The goal is for a good GUI. Doing the research for good GUI and implement it myself? I'd love to. But I have too many things on my hands now. First priority is the development of a high performance application for processing a type of data (sorry, I am not suppose to reveal it for now). Regards, Kenneth Tan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ C. J. Kenneth Tan E-mail: cjtan@acm.org Telephone: 1-403-220-8038 cjtan@ieee.org 1-403-606-4257 URL: <A HREF="http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~tanc"><A HREF="http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~tanc</A">http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~tanc</A</A>> Facsimile: 1-403-284-1980 "An engineer made programmer is one who attempts to solve a problem, A programmer made engineer is one who knows how to solve a problem." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Sun, 19 Jul 1998 hekate@intergate.bc.ca wrote:
On Sun, 19 Jul 1998, C. J. Kenneth Tan wrote:
What I really don't quite get is what about Motif window manager, mwm? What is going to happen to it? I know this is like fortune telling, but I just thought it would be something to think about. From what I see, Motif, CDE will continue to live on AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Digital UNIX, etc. I am sure there will be people who are using Linux as a cheap platform to do the work that will finally target any one of those machines -- I am one of them. Will the Gnome stuff be a separate stream then? Will Gnome stuff be the only thing on Linux then? I have no knowledge about Gnome at all, but what is it essentially? How different will it be compared to Motif?
Gnome is a desktop environement being built for Linux and presently supported by Red Hat Software and Debian Linux. I think I would do it injustice with soundbytes, I suggest <A HREF="http://www.gnome.org"><A HREF="http://www.gnome.org</A">http://www.gnome.org</A</A>> as a source for information for the truly curious. You will find there tons of information on Gnome, to include, faqs, screenshots, software links, etc etc etc.
Besides, I think the desire was to get AWAY from Motif....the same as with QT, because it's not free.
Since there are so many different window managers in Linux, has anyone done any GUI research in the development of the window managers at all? It looks like there isn't much computer-human interaction (CHI) studies being done in the development of window managers like Enlightenment. I don't mean to start a flame war here, but I think it is a very good intellectual discussion topic, especially for someone interested in CHI.
As far as research... I can't say. Go to the horses mouth and see. Raster, Mandrake, the AS people, Pascu...etc. would probably all give you their thoughts on it. I think the main thing is built on 1) funtionality and 2) that it looks cool. I haven't heard much at all about the other stuff you mention, and I belong to most of the major lists, and have built and used all these different desktops.
Personally, I find the article in "The Graphical User Interface: An Introduction" by Bernard J. Jansen very interesting. It was published in the SIGCHI Bulletin, April 1998, by the Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). Has anyone else read the article? Does anyone have any comments about it?
Not to be a d*ck. But I think most people just want something that looks cool...if you have ideas about areas that _you_ feel need research..maybe you are the man to get the ball rolling... you know what I mean, that Linux --'if it ain't there then do it yourself' type deal.. this is meant completely non-facetiously.
-M
One is most dishonest towards one's God; he is not _permitted_ to sin.
mail: mjohnson@pop3.aebc.com
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