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From: lee@puffin.uucp (Lee Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Switches in 3D !!
Keywords: SwichView 3D
Message-ID: <241@spot.wbst128.xerox.com>
Date: 10 Oct 89 14:35:00 GMT
References: <26675@prls.UUCP>
Sender: news@spot.wbst128.xerox.com
Reply-To: lee@rocksanne.uucp (Lee Moore)
Organization: WRC, Webster, NY, USA
Lines: 35

In article <26675@prls.UUCP> pieter@prls.UUCP (Pieter van der Meulen) writes:
>
>.. And, I have even heard someone saying that Smalltalk has not the
> most advanced user-interface anymore (such sacrilege :-) ).

I would agree that in terms of *graphic design* the Smalltalk interface
leaves alot to be desired.  It seems to be frozen in the seventies mind-set
that never thought twice about letting programmers do graphic design. 
Before you flame, read the above sentence again.  I am not saying that
no programmer can do graphic design.  I am saying that one should think
carefully about who does the design and that graphic design is not part
of the typical training for computer programmers.  Fortunately, most
people now realize that programmers aren't typically trained to font design,
either.

This is not to say that the look of Smalltalk has to be maintained in all
Smalltalk applications.  From the videos I have seen, the Alternative Reality
Kit from PARC looks pretty good.  Although I don't know for sure, it would
seem to the NeXT design was influenced by it.

Smalltalk carries with it a culture.  Part of this culture believes that
we are all creative humans and that computers can be a medium of expression.
I believe that public works of art should be judged more critically than
personal works of art.  Another part of this culture is that bitblt is
still state-of-the-art.  Since bitblt doesn't extend well to color or
to devices of varying resolutions, the expressive power of Smalltalk is
stunted.

Let's be civil!

Lee
Lee Moore -- Xerox Webster Research Center
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