Re: Look and Feel

[MJ Ray]

Michael asked:
> But I don't see a point in doing everything different just for the sake of
> distinctiveness. I think it should be easy for GNOME/KDE/Windows users to use
> GNUstep. There are a lot of people who have to use Windows at work. For thier
> computers at home they probably prefer an interface that is not too different
> from Windows. Do you think GNUstep, as it is, is a good choice for these
> people? [...]

Yes. I don't think Windows is a good choice for them. It gets so
many usability questions wrong. GNUstep might not get all the
answers right yet, but I don't see a point in doing everything
the same just for the sake of compatibility with a broken market
dominator.

> Would a KDE/Windows like file dialog not have been better for
> GNOME users?

I'm not sure what the KDE file dialogue looks like, but on the
occasions when I encounter Microsoft Windows users (for work,
mostly, asking for them to save in a more compatible format),
it is amazing how many of them cannot work the file dialogue
for anything more than picking a file name. There's a lot
of duplicated functionality in there which hides the basic
operations and confuses non-wizards.

To answer the question: as long as GNOME have made their file
dialogue make it obvious how to:
 * set the filename
 * set the directory (GNUstep's is a little weak on this)
 * set the file type, if such things are in their file dialogue
...then I think it's fine and probably better than
imitating the Windows one.

-- 
MJR/slef
http://mjr.towers.org.uk/