Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU!keith
From: keith@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Keith Packard)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Why are all of the free Widgets so ugly looking?
Message-ID: <9007261918.AA17530@xenon.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 26 Jul 90 19:18:08 GMT
References: <287@unf7.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29


>    I like the functionality that the Athena Widgets and HP Widgets (2-D)
> provide.  But with all of the money MIT has poured into X Windows technology
> you would think they could invest some time into making them more visually 
> appealing.

I'd certainly agree that the Athena widgets are ugly.

>    I apologize if the Athena Widget developers take offense to these 
> questions.

This is the key misunderstanding.  "Athena Widget developers".  For Release 4,
this consisted of a single person (Chris Peterson), who rewrote the entire text
widget, rewrote the pane widget, fixed many other catastrophic bugs in other
widgets and produced several hundred pages of mostly useful documentation.  I'm
certain that he must have slept during the last month before the release, but
I'm not sure when.

Besides, some of us are quite used to the Virtually Obsolete MIT look & feel.

I think there's something to be said for a completely random user-interface
policy - it keeps the users guessing, making life more interesting for people
who deal with the casual X users.  As for the screen display, at least you
can't claim that people are mesmorized by sexy glitz which distracts them from
the work at hand.

> I'm being totally unreasonable...I want free widgets that look perty! ;)

If you've got the time, we've got the tapes.