Thread: Quim keynote on Maemo's switch to Qt as the main toolkit
View Single Post
Jaffa's Avatar
Jaffa is offline Jaffa
2009-07-08 , 21:47
Posts: 2,535 | Thanked: 6,681 times | Joined on Mar 2008 @ UK
#125
Originally Posted by ragnar View Post
I think the problem with API's etc. is real, but then again, in the long run this will be an iterative process. If something isn't in the first release, we can add it to the next release
Point taken; except once an API's in place it should be kept in place for backwards compatibility.

It's just hard to me to think of good ways to get community input for the specific issue of UI.
Iterating a UI is probably harder (I dunno, great UIs are beyond me: I'll just implement what someone gives me). Perhaps it'd be worth a retrospective on how community input (whether directly, from marketing or via seeing applications on the platform) has shaped the current UI vision.

If we would have shown the Maemo 5 UI plans at the time they were ready for the first time, any smart competitor would have not commented anything on them, picked up on the good ideas, disregarded others and probably even come out with their own device before Nokia.
Assuming said competitor could build hardware and software to a spec from a few screenshots/HIG docs/videos, to a high quality (still gotta get those good reviews) and through a reliable distribution mechanism.

I'd be fascinated to know which of Nokia's competitors you think could do that, cos I'll probably go and buy a device from them; even if they haven't got the mind-blowingly excellent Maemo 5 UI ;-)

Besides, a counterpoint (and Nokia do things Nokia's way, so this is fairly off-topic), the first two things that Palm showed off with the Pre were the device and the UI.

The hardware was a bit meh (OMAP3, touchscreen, slider, yawn). But the software impressed people.

We will be the first company out with the device with the Maemo 5 UI. If you wouldn't believe your UI is an competitive advantage and therefore don't care about that fact, then we can all go home already.
If you honestly believe that the Maemo 5 UI will give Nokia's Maemo devices a competitive edge in the world of Android, iPhone and webOS; I look forward to it! But perhaps the UI will be too constrained by previous technical decisions (at least one advantage of a complete move to Qt: the UI can be re-engineered entirely).

And, the big success from a UI point of view is how easily developers can produce consistent applications with its API. And here, Maemo 5's Hildon seems to be a long stream of cock ups (don't use stock icons or labels: they won't fit in a dialogue box).

Again, here, Qt can introduce some sanity as the approach there (to date, at least) has been to try and minimise accidental complexity. Redesigning a UI for a mobile device is essential complexity: arbitrarily introducing new API for project expediency is accidental complexity which could've been avoided.

Yes, members of the community could then give "free input", probably, but "free" here isn't truly free - it is with a rather large cost.
"Free" compared with other forms of external, expert, consultancy.
__________________
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew@bleb.org | http://www.bleb.org
 

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Jaffa For This Useful Post: