Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!yale!cmcl2!beta!hc!ames!claris!apple!lsr
From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: UI Consistency (was 1 vs 3 button mice issue)
Message-ID: <7751@apple.Apple.Com>
Date: 22 Mar 88 01:46:39 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <14485@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <1759@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Reply-To: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer
Lines: 40

In article <1759@ssc-vax.UUCP> benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) writes:
>
>Apple also doesn't understand this consistency either, note that 
>when you click  (select) a file from you Mac hard disk window and drag it to 
>your floppy window you do a COPY.  When you try to to the same only instead 
>make the destination directory a hard disk directory ... you MOVE.  Note this
>is an operating system inconsistency...it makes sense but is inconsistent. 

The short answer is that sometimes it is necessary to break the rules, in the
name of common sense.

On the Lisa, moving an icon always moved the actual document.  If you wanted
to copy the document to another disk you had to select the icon and
duplicate it.  The duplicate command was modal; the duplicate icon flashed
until the user moved it somewhere.  If you clicked outside the flashing
icon, you got a chance to cancel the operation.  

On the Xerox Star (as I remember it), you would select an icon, hit the copy
or move button and select the destination.  This was all nice and
consistent.  Also on the Star you printed a document by dropping it on a
printer icon.  The question that arises is what happens if the user moves a
document onto the printer -- does the document get printed and then deleted
from the disk?  

>Also look at Interleaf on the Mac.  Their is no enforced standard. 

There has never been any enforced standard.  Apple does not revoke a
company's certified developer status if their application doesn't follow the
guidelines.  Interleaf is a case where the developer decided that their
target user was someone who was using Interleaf on another machine, and that
they should make the Mac version havethe same interface.  (It also made
porting the S/W easier, because they could port more of the code.)



-- 
		 Larry Rosenstein,  Object Specialist
 Apple Computer, Inc.  20525 Mariani Ave, MS 32E  Cupertino, CA 95014
	    AppleLink:Rosenstein1    domain:lsr@Apple.COM
		UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr