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Date:      Fri, 12 Apr 1996 13:44:33 -0700 (MST)
From:      Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
To:        narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee (Narvi)
Cc:        terry@lambert.org, jkh@time.cdrom.com, alk@Think.COM, hackers@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Lesstif (motif compatible) package.
Message-ID:  <199604122044.NAA02387@phaeton.artisoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960412104438.1803A-100000@haldjas.folklore.ee> from "Narvi" at Apr 12, 96 10:49:16 am

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> > > I know, you're now going to come back with the argument that one can
> > > trivially write a blah blah blah widget in Motif (probably using the
> > > word "virtualize" at least once :-) but that's not the point - I don't
> > > WANT to have to write custom frobs for Motif each time I want to
> > > display a triangular button or a flipping-page widget or whatever, nor
> > > do I want to have to reinvent the generalized canvas widget there.
> > 
> > Wrongo.  I'm going to say that using custom frobs is bad, and that
> > if you need a triangular button, your user interface design is bad.
> > If you succeed in creating your little triangle, where in the users
> > previous training does the information on how to use it come from?
> 
> No. Triangular (and round and square) buttons are all the same. In some 
> places the triangular ones should be used (in an application which 
> presents the user with a real world like remote control thingy?). What do 
> you think the scrollbar buttons have arrows on them? 
> 
> I don't think a triangular button makes the usage any harder if it used 
> it in a place which wins from it. 

Those places are where they are analogs to existung real-word controls,
and there aren't that many places where an aleegorical interface is
useful.

This goes back to my other question -- what does a physical instead
of a software word processor look like, such that you could design
the software version s an analog?

Most of the problems solved in software are *only* solved in
software, and have *no* real world analogs.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.



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