From: oakley at channelpoint.com (Bryan Oakley)
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 12:38:06 -0600
Subject: The Future of Tk?
References: <371E964F.C531C2A@istar.ca> <371F11C2.3162025@ciril.fr> <4fv$ECA+JyH3EwbN@jessikat.demon.co.uk> <XtJT2.124$fQ1.12097@burlma1-snr2>
Message-ID: <371F6C8E.6631E8F1@channelpoint.com>
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X-UID: 857                                                  

Barry Margolin wrote:
> 
> In article <4fv$ECA+JyH3EwbN at jessikat.demon.co.uk>,
> Robin Becker  <robin at jessikat.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >I take this completely differently; least astonishment for me is if
> >program X looks and behaves the same way no matter what keyboard, mouse
> >and screen I'm using. As a 'user' of the program X it shouldn't matter
> >what OS/WM is executing the code. I certainly don't want vi or emacs to
> >be different on the mac why should I treat word or excel differently?
> 
> I would be very surprised if Netscape on the Macintosh presented a
> Windows-like user interface, rather than adopting the standard Macintosh
> user interface.  Most end users don't switch between platforms much, so
> it's more important that all the programs on their system conform to their
> expectations, than that a particular program work the same across different
> platforms.

I would have to agree with that statement. While there are those who
think retaining the same look and feel across platforms is necessary, I
would wager they are in the distinct minority. That's not to invalidate
their position, but merely to put it in context. _Most_ users of
software want a package to look and feel like the other packages on a
given system. I hate, for example, the artsy (-fartsy) graphic programs
that have some weird UI instead of a more traditional UI. 

On the other hand, to some degree this is application-dependent rather
than user-dependent. For example, if I were to have a requirement to
write a air traffic control program that had to run on BeOS, MacOS, NT
and *nix, I would think there would be significant advantages to keeping
it 100% identical across all platforms. So, to some degree it depends on
the application, or the targeted user base. 

My point being, there's a need in the world for both models. Only, the
model where applications should adhere to native conventions is (I'm
guessing) far and away the most commonly expected model by most users.
Which is why I think using native windows on Tk is a win -- it meets the
needs of the majority (though definitely not all) of the users in the
world.

--
Bryan Oakley			mailto:oakley at channelpoint.com
ChannelPoint, Inc.		http://purl.oclc.org/net/oakley




