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Re: First Impressions of GNUStep


From: Charles Philip Chan
Subject: Re: First Impressions of GNUStep
Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 18:45:12 -0400

On Sun, 15 Jun 2003 23:39:05 +0200
Raphael Bosshard <whistler@bluewin.ch> wrote:

> - Where is the taskbar, dammit? It's quite a change if you are used to
> Gnome (in my case) or KDE. Heck, even OSX has a "taskbar" these days.

GNUstep doesn't use a taskbar- it uses a dock like in OS X. So far
people have been using the one in Window Maker, but since GNUstep is
moving away from Window Maker, the dock needs to be reimplemented. Maybe
some one can update the dock app that was available in the early days of
GNUstep? In the mean time you can use Window Maker.
 
> And to bring this  window to the top, you must first move the covering
> windows. Neither Gnome nor KDE have this "problem" because the only
> windows not appearing in the taskbar are modal.

You can manage windows of an app by using the "Windows" submenu in the
app menu. You can also access the menu of an app by either right
clicking on the app or the appicon of the app.
  
> - Strange menubar (NSMenu). Perhaps it's just me, but it gets always
> in my way. I'd prefere a OSX solution.

This has been discuss to death, but most of use prefer the NeXT style
menu. IIRC, horizontal menus are going to be implemented as a bundle in
a theme.
 
> The menubar (in my humble conditioned opinion) should stick somewhere 
> where it doesn't interfere with the other application windows. And it 
> should probably be horizontal aligned - it's more desktop-space 
> preserving this way.

On a small monitor you are correct, but not on a large monitors which
the NeXTstep interface in designed for. To use the GUI effectively, you
will need at least a 17" monitor set at 1024x768. You can also move the
menu off-screen and use the other methods of accessing the menu.

> I don't see the use of tear-off/detachable menues.

This is good for situations when you need to use a menuitem more than
once in a short period of time.
 
> - Accessability. There should be more keyboard support, for lists and 
> such stuff. This is the one area where Gnome is superior to all other 
> desktops, even OSX and Windows. ATK did it's job good.

This will be implemented, GNUstep is not finished yet.
 
> - Applications: There are very few native GNUStep-Applications and
> there is no "killer-application"

This will happen when GNUstep-GUI becomes more mature.
 
> (I'd like to try a native GNUStep-Browser, probably with khtml - Apple
> already did a great job by providing the wrappers to ObjC.)

There have been discussions of this on the list lately. Please search
the list archive.
 
> - Look and Feel. GNUStep feels and looks like a desktop of the
> nineties.

I myself prefer the plain look, but GNUstep is themable. 

> Splitting the GNUStep-Project into two seperate projects (GNUStep 
> Framework and GNUStep Desktop) would be a good idea.

Why?
 
> Last, but not least: GNUStep is no eye-candy.

A certain amount of eye candy that conveys information such as the
animated icons in NeXTstep is good. Other than that it is just waste
resources and distract you from your work. You are right about the
icons though- we need better one. It would be nice if we can just use
the NeXTstep icons by default, but there maybe copyright issues.

> - Should GNUStep be a unix-hacker only desktop or also a desktop for 
> Uncle Tom?

No, GNUstep is a multi-platformed framework (you can even run it under
Windows), but ultimately the apps should be easy for Uncle Tom to use.
 
> - What is the state of Apple's NextStep-extentions like drawers? Do
> you plan to implement them?

Actually I would prefer a tabbed shelf like in the later Openstep
versions.

It looks like you need a primer on the NeXTstep GUI, here is a link:

http://www120.pair.com/mccarthy/nextstep/intro.htmld/

Charles

-- 
"If a machine couldn't run a free operating system, we got rid of it."

  -- Richard Stallman (Open Sources, 1999 O'Reilly and Associates)

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