On 2004-09-19 17:41:59 +0100 Ben Francis lists@hippygeek.co.uk wrote:
MJ Ray wrote:
I know you're really involved in GNUStep and that was a carefully placed plug :P But could you explain why it is you personally like this user interface?
It has enough of the applications that I use every day to form a complete user interface and they integrate reasonably well. Some releases are better than others and the integration isn't brilliant right now. The interfaces do behave in a fairly consistent way still, though.
Two applications I use a lot that it hasn't got: an industrial strength code editor and a web browser. Both of those are sufficiently odd interfaces that it doesn't matter too much.
There are lot around. What makes this one different, in your opinion?
The slow evolution of the interface, which still builds from the description in the NeXTstep 3.3 book. It makes it easier to use because I'm not having to relearn all the time. I've been using it off- and on- for a few years. The last return to GNUstep was provoked by a design change in the Gnome interface, where a common keyboard shortcut combination changed from its previous function into something that destroyed data with no way to recover it. (ctrl-A changed from "start of buffer" into "select all" so trying to add something to the start of the buffer overwrites the lot)
Do you like GNUstep because it is easy to *use* or because it is easy to *develop* (for)?
A bit of both, really. The biggest problem at the moment in doing either is the patchy documentation of current releases, which is why I said documentors are needed as much as developers.
Is it because it is cross platform?
That doesn't really bother me for a desktop.
I like functional user interfaces which give feedback, behave themselves and do what you expect after a while. I should start work hacking my own interface again, but that's waiting for some 30-hour days. :-/