Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

"Real" Outliners and UI

Author:Dan Lyke
Posted:3/5/1999; 9:20:11 AM
Topic:Frontier and PIM's
Msg #:3641 (In response to 3630)
Prev/Next:3640 / 3642

But what's the difference between the outliner "hidden" in your average editor (in Emacs this'd be using "outline-mode" in a buffer), and a "real" outliner? Enforcement of structure?

Not to get too postmodern or anything, but I think that one of the big issues between Un*x people and Mac/Windows people (pardon the massive stereotyping) is that we're working in different paradigms, with dramatically different interpretations of vocabulary. For instance when you asked for a common scripting interface for open source applications, I still don't understand what more you could want than what we've already got, and I'm sure you don't understand how I can possibly hobble along with what I think of as the state of the art.

I'm not good at bridging this communication gap, but I'm trying to figure out why it's there. I think there's a middle ground somewhere that'll open up a whole new range of interface options, but because the folks I tend to hang out with are mainly people who think in that different Un*xish sort of way even the artsy Mac users I know consider the mouse just an inefficient way to learn the command keys, and get frustrated every time they move to another application that subtly changes behavior on them (as every app does).

It frustrates me that I don't understand. So sorry if I seem repetitious, but I'm just not "getting it".

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