Xref: utzoo comp.cog-eng:646 comp.software-eng:831 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!steinmetz!barnett@mozart.steinmetz.ge.com From: barnett@mozart.steinmetz.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: OPEN LOOK Message-ID: <12202@steinmetz.ge.com> Date: 23 Sep 88 03:08:34 GMT References: <7099@well.UUCP> Sender: news@steinmetz.ge.com Reply-To: barnett@steinmetz.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Followup-To: comp.cog-eng Organization: GE Corp. R & D, Schenectady, NY Lines: 50 In-reply-to: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) In article <7099@well.UUCP>, shf@well (Stuart H. Ferguson) writes: >I don't like [OPEN LOOK]. I don't like it at all. > >Scroll bars are a good example. Obviously no interface will ever be perfect. But if, say, Sun ships their system with the Open Look as a default, with a customizable user interface, it should be a minor point. Sun does similar things now. With settings to make their 4.0 version like their 3.5 version. I bet the next release will have both the current SunView, and OPEN LOOK, and have the option to pick the best from both. If you don't like any of them, ... you have to provide your own, or switch vendors. But give the scroll bars a good look. They aren't too shabby. If you just move the mouse somewhere in the scroll bar, you will get a reasonable response. The most likely actions will be to move forward or back a screen, or go to the beginning or end of the buffer. The anchors at the end of the cable sure do indicate to me the beginning and end of the buffer. Clicking on them does the appropriate action. If I move the mouse above the "elevator" and click, I will move up one screen. This is a nice default action, and the "hot spot" is very large; a nice feature for a frequent action. The "elevator" does "bump" the mouse up, which may be a surprise. But it sure makes it convenient for scrolling forward and back pages. Just keep clicking. Now if you don't click on the anchors, or the space above or below the elevator, you must have grabbed the elevator itself. What would you *guess* would happen? Right, you can "drag" the elevator to any position in the buffer. If you want to do something special, like search or go to a line number, the pop-up menu can provide more powerful, complex features to the user. I believe the goal was to provide the most common uses in the most obvious way. I think they have done a reasonable job. It is more obvious than the current SunView version. -- -- Bruce G. Barnett uunet!steinmetz!barnett