Re: Another GUI (Re: This thing we called GNUstep)

[James Carthew]

There should be two core GUI APIs. One based on touch and one based on Keyboard/Mouse. Apple's platforms are better than Microsoft and Linux right now because they realised early that you need two seperate UIs for different purposes. There's a good reason that the Macbooks don't have touch screens. As soon as you add a keyboard/mouse to a PC it is far quicker to use than a touchscreen. Gnome on Linux and Windows 8 both crashed into this problem head on and stupidly. Trying to force on traditional desktop users an interface they neither wanted nor needed, and the result has been a disaster with massive backlash against both platforms. I think GNUStep is uniquely positioned to deal with this, as the GUI is so detached from the underlying codebase, it would be easy to make a touch based UI Kit, and then link it to your application code while at the same time providing a User interface for your desktop/laptop users by giving them the traditional GUI Kits they're used to. I think if you want to go down the mobile path it's fine, but it shouldn't be an all-in thing. There needs to be some smart planning done with such a move. I'm not convinced that tablets are going to take over. Sure for casual web browsing they are killing off a lot of PCs that didn't get used for much before. But I'm yet to see a wholesale move from ERP and back-office applications to tablets. It will most likely never happen as too much needs to still be done with keyboard and mouse. On-screen typing while good isn't as effective as a keyboard. The best example of this is the fact that I'm typing this on my PC rather than using my new iPad because the typing on it isn't as ergonomic and comfortable. And it never will be. Most content creation is still happening on PC/Laptop. Sure a little has shifted to tablets, but the bulk of production will always be done on PC.

On 23 December 2013 05:35, Doc O'Leary <droleary@7usenet2013.subsume.com> wrote:

In article <mailman.9849.1387577879.10748.discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>,
 Pirmin Braun <pb@intars.de> wrote:

> Am Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:53:25 -0500
> schrieb Gregory Casamento <greg.casamento@gmail.com> :
>
> > What is more effective is to change GNUstep's look so that it appeals to a
> > wider audience
>
> do we need another GUI?

We're going to get one, but not what you're thinking.  I've made this
point elsewhere, but it bears repeating: iOS should not be seen as a
revolution in mobile phones, but a revolution of the touch GUI.  It did
*happen* to be on the mobile phone, but what I think was the root of the
success was that it gave a strong metaphor to touch that was not
widespread before.  All other "touch" GUIs followed the same WIMP
metaphor that Apple popularized on the desktop.  Treating touch as
something different was a breakthrough.

So, yes, we'll have at least one more GUI.  The interface that is
everywhere, tried and tried again, but still hasn't had a breakthrough
metaphor is 3D.  I can envision some equally desktop-breaking ones, but
I think they are really beyond the (current) scope of the GNUstep
project.

> And even if it would happen, will any user of a
> popular UI dump it in favour of GNUstep?

Given how the desktop market is being *destroyed* by touch interfaces,
it is quite likely a truly new UI could change the world.  But, of
course, that is not what is being discussed when people rush to re-skin
a window manager.

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