The Miscelaneous UI Thread

The Tunes User Interface Mail Archive

(Last modified Saturday, January 28, 1995 @ 1:30PM PST)
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 23:48:28 +1300 (NZDT)
From: Johan Van Schalkwyk 
Subject: What's in a name?
Consider Windoze: we all know its a dog, its only advantage being that it is moderately less user-hostile than the programming atrocities that preceded it.. Why has it sold so well - (1) good marketing hype (2) it has certain attributes that are desirable - its clumsy GUI, its primitive multi-tasking, etc. (3) Microsoft have clout. Nevertheless, you cannot ignore its success.


Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 15:39:27 -0500
From: Cybernaut 
Subject: OFF: Extensible File System
I know there's a slight avversion to file systems in this project, but I just thought I'd pipe up with an idea I've been working on for a while. I call it an Extensible File System. Any file system I've yet encountered, FAT, HPFS, various UNIX FSes in particular can be made extensible. What this entails is adding additional tags to any directory entry for any file you want to entend. For instance, for graphics files, the tag can contain information about the format and structure of the image, resolution, aspect ratio, the best viewer for it, etc., etc. This would make prioriknowledge of the image file unnecessary. Also, for things like constructing GUI desktops, each dirent in the user's desktop directory could designate an object on the desktop. Each dirent could then have an additional tag describing where that object appears on the decktop, a pointer to a small graphic file to retrieve that object's icon, information on what needs to happen when that object is clicked, double-clicked, drag-and-dropped, etc.

I believe that by handling objects files as just another extended dirent tag, the system can easily discern one object from another and know what object does what without ever having to know where that object is stored or anything about the internal stucture of the object files.


Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 15:46:44 -0500
From: Cybernaut 
Subject: GOALS: My two cents worth.
You wanted one-liner goals for the project, well, here's mine:


Date: Wed, 9 Nov 1994 17:43:33 +0800
From: kyle@putput.cs.wwu.edu (Kyle Hayes)
Subject: Re: Goals Summary
End Users/Marketing Goals:


Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 23:23:30 +1300 (NZDT)
From: Johan Van Schalkwyk 
Subject: Charters & goals.
"Must be malleable / no set UI". Yes & NO!!

It is great to have a flexible system, but, let's face it, most people are creatures of habit. Present John Citizen with more than several options, and he will more likely than not crack wide open! Have a set UI that is so damn good that no one in his right mind would want to change it and then make it so easy to change that even Windows users can adapt it to suit their perverted needs!


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