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The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

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Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#111

Post by kartickvad »

userbinator wrote: post #12
smacktoward wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows are gone Ehhh, yes and no; as mobile OSes have gotten more multitasking-friendly they've moved towards the "card" metaphor, in which each app runs in a card and there's some method for shuffling between them. And a card is really just a window that's maximized 100% of the time. (Which is how most general users use windows on the desktop, so they're not losing much.)

Hopefully the reason for a lack of windows on mobile devices is because their screens are too small to manipulate them effectively with a finger. Which is how most general users use windows on the desktop, so they're not losing much. I've noticed this too, and it's puzzling - I've seen people maximise browsers on large monitors and end up with a narrow column of text surrounded by tons of blank space, or the more dif…

I maximise windows to eliminate distraction. I'd rather finish reading the article I'm reading, for example, and then Cmd-Tab to something else, rather than obsessively glancing at a Gmail window a dozen times through the article.

More the multitasking, the more stressed I get. One thing at a time is relaxing, and more productive. Feeling frantic doesn't result in any more work, or higher quality work, being done, after all.

I maximise windows even on my 30-inch monitor. Recently, I've switched to full-screen. I wish I could tell OS X to launch apps full-screen by default. Windows should, for me, be the exception, not the norm. This is one aspect where mobile OSs are superior, for me.

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#112

Post by JupiterMoon »

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #96
JupiterMoon wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may be misunderstanding what you need help with but try about:addons?

I was eventually able to find the ui that lists add-ons. To restore the add-on bar, I had to install another add-on. Im not real clear why firefox thought it was a good idea to remove the add-on bar without asking any of the people who use it, but the outcry was something like what is going on right now with reddit.

Ah are you looking for the UI to have UI elements for addons visible? In that case click the hamburger menu and then customize at the bottom of the menu. This should allow you to add UI buttons offered by the different addons you have installed next to you bookmarks etc button.

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#113

Post by pionar »

davidshepherd7 wrote: post #104
JupiterMoon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu's unity does the command lookup thing with its HUD. XFCE allows one to change keyboard shortcut settings in a similar fashion (from within the menus as it doesn't have the HUD)?

That's one of the things I really like about Unity. Can't remember which menu the mouse settings are buried in? No problem, just type "mouse" into the dash.

To be fair, Windows 8+ does that too.

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#114

Post by eru »

m_mueller wrote: post #35

One thing that almost always gets overlooked when critizing / trying to innovate on Xerox Parc-like interfaces, is discoverability. Look at departures from this interface (or predecessors of it) and you'll almost always find a system where it's hard for users to discover what they can do and how their actions will affect the state. Most prominently: * iOS style gestures * Office Ribbons (where has my feature XY been…

Discoverability in the CLI can be much improved with proper completion and a hint system. The fish shell is doing a good job of exploring these ideas.

What do you mean by `objects' in this context? And how would they help?

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#115

Post by grkvlt »

m_mueller wrote: post #35

One thing that almost always gets overlooked when critizing / trying to innovate on Xerox Parc-like interfaces, is discoverability. Look at departures from this interface (or predecessors of it) and you'll almost always find a system where it's hard for users to discover what they can do and how their actions will affect the state. Most prominently: * iOS style gestures * Office Ribbons (where has my feature XY been…

> ls | [entry.created for entry in $@ if entry.filename[0] == 'a'] | sort

You can do that type of thing with PowerShell quite easily. Something like this, maybe:

    Get-ChildItem | Where-Object Name.substring(0,1) -eq 'a' | Sort-Object CreationTime | Select-Object CreationTime

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#116

Post by grkvlt »

Mikhail_Edoshin wrote: post #78
skymt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Office Ribbon is notable for being designed entirely for discoverability. What it lacks is familiarity. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2005/09/14/467126.as... > Office "12" consolidates all of the entry points into one place: the Ribbon. So if you're trying to find a feature and don't know where it is, the scope of your search is drastically reduced. Click on the leftmost tab, and click across the tabs u…

My favorite path is that (MS Word): 1. Click the tiny icon in the bottom right corner of the styles widget. It will open essentially the same widget, but as a vertical list and with a few additional controls; this is what we're after. 2. At the bottom there are three nearly identical buttons without labels. Click the 2nd one from the left (the tooltip says "Style Inspector"). This will open another floating window. W…

Microsoft Word makes it pretty easy to find commands. For your example, I did the following: Click on 'Help' menu, type 'reve', press down arrow to select 'reveal formatting' and the actual menu item (in the 'View' menu) is highlighted, press 'enter' to enable. This is in Office 2016 for OSX.

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#117

Post by digi_owl »

ams6110 wrote: post #24
digi_owl wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much Windows 10 will add to that, as there you can drag windows into one of the corners to have it adopt a defined screen space.

Hm. Having to drag windows at all seems to be a serious deficiency in a "tiled" implementation.

Seems that at least on Windows 7 you could do Windows key plus arrow keys to do certain actions, left/right being dock to that edge, up maximize, down minimize.

Not sure how they will be extending that in Windows 10.

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#118

Post by digi_owl »

pqdbr wrote: post #45
m_mueller wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think stuff like that is ok iff it works consistently (>99%) and if it does something consistant as well. For example, on Windows I do like how I can usually predict what a right-click does. If Force Touch is used consistantly for context based interactions, then I think there would be some advantage on larger touch screens, since it could be executed wherever your fingers are, instead of scrolling back to the top…

You touched another interesting point. I remember reading somewhere that Steve insisted the mac shouldn't have a 2 button mouse for such a long time just because it would force developers make a simpler UI, where no 'hidden menus' could be created. The lazy option of just throwing everything under a 'right click' simply couldn't exist. If you think about it, Force Touch could create that 'right click' in iOS, which I…

* Let's face it: the popularity of these devices came from the fact that they are really easy to use to the average user (think your mom for example). Will she know about Force Touch and incorporate that in her interface discovery process ? *

Dunno about that...

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#119

Post by digi_owl »

Swizec wrote: post #90
PuppyWhirl wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not both? I want good defaults, and also the ability to change the things that I might want tweaked for whatever reason down the line. A powerful preferences interface is the software equivalent of opening up the hood of a car -- just because I want it to run well doesn't mean I'm not gonna poke around.

About your cars reference, there's a funny segment from an old Top Gear where the presenters beat everyone at the modified cars drag strip race using a stock Bentley. Everyone else poured thousands of hours and thousands of dollars into their car. James May showed up with a stock Bentley - a big fat comfortable car - and won the day.

I suspect there is some hidden context there that hid his chances of pulling that off, in classic Top Gear asshole style.

Re: The Anti-Mac Interface (1996)

#120

Post by digi_owl »

Swizec wrote: post #29
userbinator wrote: post #4

We predict that people who have grown up with computers will be much more capable as computer users than the current generation of users. Thus, they will be able to use (and will in fact, demand) expressive interfaces with advanced means of expressing their wants. How unfortunate that this did not turn out to be the case, and I think it's likely that is because most people liked the "simple and easy" Mac-like UIs wit…

> The point about "user control" is odd though, since that's basically the exact opposite of the Apple philosophy today, and even the older Macs seemed more opaque and with less user control than the PCs of the time. As an advanced user, I don't want more control. I want defaults that are good enough that I never want to change them. Every hour I spend tinkering with my computer, is an hour I didn't spend achieving u…

As the saying goes about MS Office, 99% of the users only use 1% of the features. But they all use a Different 1%.

What will be acceptable defaults to you may well drive me up the wall.

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