Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: My opinion of OS X
Author: Jeff A. Campbell Posted: 1/14/2000; 3:16:47 PM Topic: My opinion of OS X Msg #: 14461 (In response to 14432) Prev/Next: 14460 / 14462
I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that many of these options are optional. Single window mode? Not mandatory - you can have multiple windows, rendered in the standard Apple style. Either way, we are bringing in newbies and old NeXT people, and should accomodate their working styles as well.Inactive controls are indeed rendered as being inactive - ie. they lose their color. Only when you mouse over an inactive control does it become active, which DOES make sense - I like the ability to manipulate inactive windows without bringing them into view.
The main complaint people seem to have about the controls is that they may cause problems with color blind people. As a color blind person myself, I can state that it won't be a problem. Most of the people complaining, oddly enough, aren't even colorblind. I mean, what is so inherantly intuitive about current widgets anyhow? Since when is a plain square symbolic for 'close window'? These are learned.
As for the apple logo in the middle of the menu bar, I couldn't agree more. I hope Apple will wise up on this issue.
The application menu seems to be gone, or at the least not yet implemented. I do think Apple might be trying to deemphasize the difference between 'running' and 'not running' applications, moving to a more document-centric view of things. With a modern sub-system, there is no reason to quit applications. When an app isn't used for a while, its memory is swapped out to disk until it's needed again. This will take a while to get used to, but it's more natural from a user perspective in the end.
This last note is something you should think about - it's a big paradigm (uh oh, there's that word) change, but it's a natural next step.
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There are some other good things about the new interface, though. I personally like the dock, although it could do with some improvements.
Also, the drop-shadow underneath windows is far more than fluff in my opinion. I believe it greatly improves the distinction between active and inactive windows, and have been asking for this feature in the BeOS for 2 years. It's a proper use of 3d metaphors without losing the familiarity of a 2d interface. Actually, I really really like this.
Tying save/open dialog boxes to windows makes so much sense, it's not even funny.
There have been rumors that Apple has been experimenting with a hotkey combo which makes the current window VERY tranclucent when a key is held down and you move your mouse over it. I really hope this ends up in the final release. It would make desktop visualization much nicer for those of us with multiple windows open.
Anyhow, I agree that there are some implementation details that could use some work. But not so many that I'd register a domain name to point them out. It's still in early rev of the OS... :>
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