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From: toml@ninja.Solbourne.COM (Tom LaStrange)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Look and Feel? Or just Look?
Message-ID: <1990Feb17.223729.21903@Solbourne.COM>
Date: 17 Feb 90 22:37:29 GMT
Sender: news@Solbourne.COM
Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc.
Lines: 82

I'll bite, even with my limited knowledge of Motif.

	Is the UI easy to use? Does it require any documentation?
	Is it intutive?

I think both are fairly easy to use but I'll tell you what I HATE about
Motif.  I can never figure out which mouse button to press to pop up
a menu.  If the mouse is in the menu bar or in the upper-left button of
the mwm deocration, it's mouse button one.  If you are anyplace else
in the mwm decoration, it's button 2.  At the OSF/Motif tutorial at the
X Conference I learned that pop-up menus should come up on button 3.
Open Look says that button 3 is the menu button.  If an application has
a menu, it will com up on button 3.  In this case I prefer the consitancy
of the Open Look interface.

	How easy is it to move and resize windows? 
	Is the mechanism intutive? Convenient?

Both window manager provide resize corners in their decorations, so it's easy.

	How easy it it to keep track of the keyboard focus?
	How easy is it to change the focus?

By default both have click-to-type.

	Are there any mechanisms to help you keep track of
	the state (busy/idle/error) of each application?
	
I don't know about motif but Open Look clients can set a property on their
top level window informing the window manager that the application is busy.
The window manager can alter the deocration somehow to reflect this.  This
of course is one of those private ICCCM protocol extensions.

	Is it easy to manage multiple tasks simultaneously?

?

	Is there any method used to group related windows?

Once again, I don't know about motif, but the Open Look spec says that
you can group windows by outlining them on with a rubber band rectangle
on the root window.  I know olwm/R4 allows this.  I think the only thing
you can do after grouping them is move them, but I may be wrong.  Both
interfaces do limited grouping of applications and their transient windows.

	How easy is it to organize the window placement?
	Does the UI provide features for organizing your desktop?

	How convenient is the scrollbar?

	Does the UI support Selections well? How many types of
	selections? Is it intuitive?

	How well are choices (i.e. menus) presented to the
	user? What sequences of actions are needed to select
	menu items? How much screen real-estate does it require?
	Does this mechanism scale well? Can the menu system
	handle large choices well? (i.e. pick one option out of 100).
	How many actions does it take to make menu selections?
	Are there accelerators for these actions? Are they user definable?
	How quickly can the menu be browsed (assume no CPU delays).

	Is there a desktop metaphor? How complete is it?
	Drag and drop?

Once, again, Open Look specifies a private ICCCM extension protocol to
implement this.  I don't know about motif.

	Are there accelerators for common actions? Can you redefine them?

I think this is really where Motif shines.  Anything that can be done from
the mouse can be done from the keyboard.  I'm not sure if they can be
redefined.

Sorry if I sounded too religious

--
Tom LaStrange

Solbourne Computer Inc.    ARPA: toml@Solbourne.COM
1900 Pike Rd.              UUCP: ...!{boulder,sun}!stan!toml
Longmont, CO  80501