[Tfug] Speaking of desktops (little 'd')...

[Rich]

On Nov 10, 2008, at 8:46 pm, Bexley Hall wrote:

> What are the "inexcusable sins" encountered in current
> "user interfaces" (sorry for the imprecision but intend that
> to encompass all sorts of interactive devices).

Like pretty much everyone else: stealing focus is #1. The most  
frustrating is when you're typing a password in to an obscured field.  
As this is something the GUI provides, it shouldn't be too hard to  
prevent something from stealing focus -- even if it pops up a window  
in front of it. It's unexpected behavior, so it's a bug.

Somewhat related, windows that pop over where you're typing. Again,  
it's a bug that's easy to solve: the GUI knows you're typing, so it  
should not unfocus the window.

Again, related: splash screens that trickle. Some authors are soooo  
proud of their work that they think every single one of their users  
should be prevented from using any other application while their  
crowning glory takes three minutes to load. It seems to be a sneaky  
way of ensuring you keep the app running all the time -- or as long  
as it'll stay upright.

Windows that say "I'm focussed!" when they're not -- this only seems  
to happen on Windows, where programmers find it too hard to use the  
provided GUI, so they draw their own. But then their event listeners  
are always shouldered aside by "more important" tasks. Programmers  
need to learn that there is nothing more important than providing  
feedback to the user.

But that leads to other problems: overenthusiastic status reporting.  
Ever tried using Thunderbird to a remote IMAP server over an  
unreliable connection (i.e. Cox)? It'll have trouble saving sent  
messages to "Sent", so it complains with focus stealing popups. The  
Thunderbird guys need to look at Apple Mail, which has an "Activity  
Viewer" (note: this isn't where you can do fingerpainting and pin the  
donkey on the tail).

Windows's "You need to reboot for the changes to take effect" style  
popups after receiving automated updates. They only have two  
responses, "Reboot" and "Remind me later". Where's "Piss off"?

Mac has a similar thing, but you can force quit the Software Update  
GUI, or you can update from the command line.

Windows's slow shutdowns; whether it's its insistence on patience  
(hey, gotta wait for this unresponsive program to... err... respond  
-- but that's why I'm shutting down), or its desire to perform  
installations. Neither of these should prevent me from undocking my  
laptop and taking it with me, but they frequently do. It makes me  
drive home faster -- so it *is* actually a safety hazard.

One non-bug thing that deserves my withering gaze is GUI buttons  
grouped together by style, rather than function. Intuition (Amiga)  
had the close gadget in the top left, window raise/lower and switch  
size in the top right, and drag-resize in the lower right. The old  
Mac desktop had it just about right too. Every desktop since has  
determined that I should have the close gadget right next to the  
minimize gadget. Yes, on FOSS window managers I can often customize  
this placement, and I frequently do. There's the key *frequently*.  
Every new account I get I have to jump through hoops to have a GUI  
that works well for me.

I don't know if this is fixed in Fista, but every version of Windows  
I've used has had truly naff screensavers -- and none of them do  
vertical syncing.

As for Don's other points:

> - focus follows cursor (in some cases, I like this; at
>   other times, it is a nuisance.  Maybe the application
>   should convey this to the window manager as a 'preference'?)
> - auto raise when in focus (I consider this A Bad Idea in
>   almost all circumstances)
>

ffm is a traditional way of interacting with windows. I prefer it, so  
I check it wherever possible. Even on Mac, which uses click-to-focus- 
and-raise (ctfar?), I have focus-follows-mouse set in my X11  
environment. It just works better. At least it works better than the  
Mac and Windows behavior.

Yes, the middle ground would be a handy option: click-to-focus-but- 
never-raise-until-told-to-do-so (ctfbnruttds?)

> I also dislike having menus, toolbars, etc. *in* the application
> windows.  I liked the way the old MacOS handled this -- though
> I suspect that it has gone away in OS X (?)
Nope. It's there still. Phew.

> But, what about the other "channels" used to convey information
> to the user.  E.g., should any app be able to "make noise"
> whenever it wants?  Or, should the noises that it is allowed to
> make be tied to where the user's focus resides?  Etc.

Second option. I'm the user, I'll decide what info I want. I want my  
noise squirreled away in a small log window or (get this) not at all.

On Mac (I mention it only because it's my non-work machine) there is  
a plethora of text editors that use their own screen to reduce  
distractions. Every few months, someone comes out with a  
groundbreaking study that shows how distractions actually lower  
productivity. Who'd've guessed?


R.