Microsoft UI has officially entered the realm of self-parody

Post by shabble » Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 1:11 AM UTC

archgoon wrote: post #186

super_mario wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac OS X already has that, but I still would not like to see the filesystem hidden from me. It's just too valuable idea for it to go away and it takes us further away from general computing to turning our computers into appliances owned by our OS vendor.

I think the idea of the parent poster is that there would be no file system (at least not in the sense of a tree hierarchy of directories), just a large database with some SQL like language exposed through the GUI.

Post by william42 » Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 1:21 AM UTC

DougBTX wrote: post #89

51Cards wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand what you're saying, and despite the content of my above post I've never been an Apple guy, always a Windows one. Every time I went over to the Apple OS I felt I had one hand tied behind my back by lack of options. I also try to keep in mind that I'm not typical. I started on "PCs" in 1981 and have grown with them, this all comes naturally. So when I judge a UI I literally stick my Mom on it... she's 68.…

I felt I had one hand tied behind my back That reminds me of the first few times I tried to learn vim.

Post by ugh » Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 1:48 AM UTC

bane wrote: post #102

varunsrin wrote: post #82

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It's cumbersome because you have to navigate through a bunch of menus - however, its easy because you have a finite, visible set of actions to look through those menus (tap, swipe, repeat) and a finite set of menus themselves. In a desktop OS, you have a seemingly infinite set of modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, Double click, click, right click, Ctrl + Shift), which are not 'logical' operations like tapping and swiping - they m…

which are not 'logical' operations like tapping and swiping - they must be learned and remembered. And now even those are getting out of control: http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/gestures.html Pretty soon I'm going to run out of fingers, and these certainly aren't easily discoverable.

Post by sunchild » Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 2:00 AM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #199

scott_s wrote: post #174

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I think the point you're missing is that most people only manipulate data that clearly belongs to some application. So, for most people, the relevant application managing their data and abstracting away the underlying file system is a valid option. If that doesn't work for you, then okay. You're not most people.

Oddly, Microsoft used to be app centric and moved to being file centric with Windows 95. The idea being that you cared less about the app and more about the document you were using. Apple is going back and saying you care about the app as the dominant focus. This is interesting. For example, my mom knows the document she wants to open is her 2009 tax return document. The fact that it is a PDF or she reads it with Ado…

Post by dasil003 » Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 2:05 AM UTC

william42 wrote: post #203

DougBTX wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt I had one hand tied behind my back That reminds me of the first few times I tried to learn vim.

It reminds me of why I stopped using vim after switching to Dvorak.