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Canvas UI Library Demo

mochaui.com

21–26 of 26 posts

Re: Canvas UI Library Demo

#21
post #8
post #3

MDI interfaces are so last century...

Fair point. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it being entirely pop-up window based, which I presume is the alternative to MDI.

There is no need for pop-up windows nor MDI, it's a technical demo for the sake of a technical demo. It's no accident that the default layout contains no overlapping "windows".

Re: Canvas UI Library Demo

#22
post #17

I don't think the whole "Desktop in the Web UI" fad is good for the web. A lot of apps that are used in the desktop could be easily ported to the web without the need of windows like this. There are other ways to do it, AJAX allows for them. What works in the desktop doesn't necessarilly work in the web.

Have you ever used meebo? It's one case where I think the metaphor works quite well.

Actually you're right about meebo. But I've used several other "Desktop on the web" websites or sites that use this paradigm and generally I think there must be another way because that doesn't really work for me.

Now imagine if those kinds of idea of decentralization were used in a modern OS for certain configurations and stuff...

Re: Canvas UI Library Demo

#23
post #16
post #9

I'm still not convinced that conventional windows work inside a browser. I think it confuses the user, and makes for bloat and mess. Yeah it's cool you can do things like emulating desktop windows, resize, drag, minimize etc, but just because you can do this, doesn't mean you should . There's a lot to be said for keeping things clean and simple. Keep things accessible.

Also keep in mind that your users may be viewing your webpage with their phone, which is one big reason to not go the desktop simulation route. Still, it's a very cool demo.

Agreed. I have had users suggest I use right click to open up a contextual menu on my webapp... All well and good until you're using an iPhone, or wii, or something else without a mouse.

Re: Canvas UI Library Demo

#24

I don't think the whole "Desktop in the Web UI" fad is good for the web. A lot of apps that are used in the desktop could be easily ported to the web without the need of windows like this. There are other ways to do it, AJAX allows for them. What works in the desktop doesn't necessarilly work in the web.

I agree. It seems like a lot of these web-desktop UI libraries are just reinventing X11, poorly. The web has its own tropes and idioms. The availability of performant and standards-compliant Javascript is changing what's possible, but that doesn't mean we need to just reimplement the previous paradigm.

Re: Canvas UI Library Demo

#25
post #9

I'm still not convinced that conventional windows work inside a browser. I think it confuses the user, and makes for bloat and mess. Yeah it's cool you can do things like emulating desktop windows, resize, drag, minimize etc, but just because you can do this, doesn't mean you should . There's a lot to be said for keeping things clean and simple. Keep things accessible.

You can't make a blanket statement about whether this is good or bad; it's a tool - it depends on how it's used.

Re: Canvas UI Library Demo

#26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever used meebo? It's one case where I think the metaphor works quite well.

Actually you're right about meebo. But I've used several other "Desktop on the web" websites or sites that use this paradigm and generally I think there must be another way because that doesn't really work for me. Now imagine if those kinds of idea of decentralization were used in a modern OS for certain configurations and stuff...

I don't quite follow.. what do you mean by decentralization?

.. do you mean something like having your desktop settings on a central server? ..something like apple's new Mobile Me?

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