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SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

sqlook.com

31–40 of 79 posts

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#31
post #21

The user experience is so (paradoxically) refreshing. Back then you could fit so much useful information and controls into a single screenful; interfaces responded instantly; it was easy to figure where things are and what I'm looking at. With "modern" UIs, you can't get a big picture of what you're working on because there is so much white space and scrolling; the application is slower than your fingers; with each a…

> interfaces responded instantly

I wish this nostalgic myth would die. Back in the Win 9x days we all had laughably slow spinning disks and hardly any RAM. Interfaces for simple programs like Minesweeper and Notepad were instant, sure. But anything heavy like Word, IE, Encarta, Visual Studio, etc. were definitely not.

Most of those kinds of apps are way faster now than they were in the 90s, mostly thanks to SSDs. (Visual Studio is a notable exception - they really screwed it up after 6.0.)

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#32
post #21

The user experience is so (paradoxically) refreshing. Back then you could fit so much useful information and controls into a single screenful; interfaces responded instantly; it was easy to figure where things are and what I'm looking at. With "modern" UIs, you can't get a big picture of what you're working on because there is so much white space and scrolling; the application is slower than your fingers; with each a…

It's worth remembering you had far fewer pixels to play with; I remember 800x600 and 1024x768 being the standard monitor resolutions of the day.

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#33
post #21

The user experience is so (paradoxically) refreshing. Back then you could fit so much useful information and controls into a single screenful; interfaces responded instantly; it was easy to figure where things are and what I'm looking at. With "modern" UIs, you can't get a big picture of what you're working on because there is so much white space and scrolling; the application is slower than your fingers; with each a…

> interfaces responded instantly I wish this nostalgic myth would die. Back in the Win 9x days we all had laughably slow spinning disks and hardly any RAM. Interfaces for simple programs like Minesweeper and Notepad were instant, sure. But anything heavy like Word, IE, Encarta, Visual Studio, etc. were definitely not. Most of those kinds of apps are way faster now than they were in the 90s, mostly thanks to SSDs. (Vi…

> Most of those kinds of apps are way faster now than they were in the 90s

I strongly disagree.

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#34
post #21

The user experience is so (paradoxically) refreshing. Back then you could fit so much useful information and controls into a single screenful; interfaces responded instantly; it was easy to figure where things are and what I'm looking at. With "modern" UIs, you can't get a big picture of what you're working on because there is so much white space and scrolling; the application is slower than your fingers; with each a…

> interfaces responded instantly I wish this nostalgic myth would die. Back in the Win 9x days we all had laughably slow spinning disks and hardly any RAM. Interfaces for simple programs like Minesweeper and Notepad were instant, sure. But anything heavy like Word, IE, Encarta, Visual Studio, etc. were definitely not. Most of those kinds of apps are way faster now than they were in the 90s, mostly thanks to SSDs. (Vi…

when you click save or when memory has to be paged/loaded, etc, yes.

when it comes to responding to user input - while memory is being swapped, yes.

in contrast, even when the computer wasn't responding, it never lost keystrokes. I'd type ahead and then the characters would appear when it was ready.

now, the windows computer just randomly loses characters and loses focus for no reason. if it's not paying attention when you're typing or clicking, it just won't respond.

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#35
post #8

That is not an accurate reproduction of the classic Windows UI. The 3D bevels on buttons and other beveled elements are wrong and make it look more like Motif if anything.

They should have used 98.css, but with font-face: Tahoma. https://jdan.github.io/98.css/

Was the font really the only difference between 98 and 2k?

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#36
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> interfaces responded instantly I wish this nostalgic myth would die. Back in the Win 9x days we all had laughably slow spinning disks and hardly any RAM. Interfaces for simple programs like Minesweeper and Notepad were instant, sure. But anything heavy like Word, IE, Encarta, Visual Studio, etc. were definitely not. Most of those kinds of apps are way faster now than they were in the 90s, mostly thanks to SSDs. (Vi…

when you click save or when memory has to be paged/loaded, etc, yes. when it comes to responding to user input - while memory is being swapped, yes. in contrast, even when the computer wasn't responding, it never lost keystrokes. I'd type ahead and then the characters would appear when it was ready. now, the windows computer just randomly loses characters and loses focus for no reason. if it's not paying attention wh…

Windows doesn't randomly lose characters or focus for me.

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should have used 98.css, but with font-face: Tahoma. https://jdan.github.io/98.css/

Wow, I initially thought that the first dialog box was a screencap of a "real" one... Impressive!

Pixel-aligned non-antialiased interfaces make it so much easier to reproduce. Good luck emulating current-gen desktop OS rendering on a different software and hardware stack...

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should have used 98.css, but with font-face: Tahoma. https://jdan.github.io/98.css/

Was the font really the only difference between 98 and 2k?

I think the colors and icons were slightly different, but 98 + Tahoma gets you most of the way there.

Re: SQLook – A free online SQLite database manager with a Windows 2000 interface

#39

I think it's pretty cool that the source code is all in a single file called app.js, and it's just doing simple DOM manipulations, no React, no minification, no libraries. I like to think it's just written like that too, a gigantic file that the author just iterates on.

It's incredibly refreshing to see that you can still build decently complex web apps without a huge swath of JS build tools
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