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tso's Avatar
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#191
heh, figures.
 
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#192
Originally Posted by tso View Post
and i find myself installing canola, play around with it for 5 min, then uninstalling it again.
Oh, not me! I use it for everything: audio, video, photos, YouTube... Seriously it is probably the most used app on my tablet (aside from Claws, Mauku, and AisleRiot).

-T.
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ARJWright's Avatar
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#193
Originally Posted by Texrat View Post
In my opinion what's called for here is a revolutionary approach that throws old paradigms out the window and starts from scratch. Some time back we had that discussion here but unfortunately it seemed to have ultimately gone nowhere.

I want to forget conventional menus, zooming, scrolling, etc, and come up with an approach that is specifically designed around the tablets' capabilities. That means, IMO, increased usage of gestures and decreased emphasis on things like dropdown menus. Long clicks, finger motions, multitaps, etc. I'll take heat for this from traditionalists I know but something that borrows heavily from Canola, iPhone and other similar approaches.

Out with the old.

In with the new.
I'm very close to writing out how this can be done. Depending on the response to WordPy's next version, I'll know what works in exactly this kind of UI approach.
 
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#194
Originally Posted by tso View Post
...i find myself installing canola, play around with it for 5 min, then uninstalling it again.
That's pretty much where I find myself, only a few months ago I gave up on Canola entirely. I used to install each release sure that this time, this time it would click. I'd find the joy almost everyone else finds with Canola. This would be it.

Instead, I'd again find a start up time seemingly longer than the play time of an average, radio-edit track and a cumbersome user interface designed for some other, non-touchscreen, non-multitasking device. The slow launch I could live with, but the UI I can't. In the end, the simple task of creating a .desktop file with the "-n" switch for normal, everyday use always wound up seeming to be more trouble than it's worth, and I'd dump the whole program yet again.

I like Canola's list of features. I like its developers. I want to like it. But I hates fighting the UI.
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#195
lol. The way you guys are ranting, you almost sound like you're discussing politics. And if we wanted to take it a step further, we could call the two groups the Stylus Party and the Thumb Party.
Seriously, there really are two parties. And they have different goals and needs initally with the exact same needs once you boil down to it.

Here's my argument for those who don't quite understand the "for stylus" and "consistency" needs to the current UI for the IT:
http://tabletui.wordpress.com/2008/0...lus-driven-ui/

...and so we're back to the concept of separating code logic from the UI, ie, skinning. I agree with the comments made in that regard. It would be awesome if there were a desktop analog to CSS-- or, if CSS was just extended and embraced by application developers at large to the point that anyone could slap any interface on any app (or even OS), regardless of its intended platform or purpose.
That should be the case; but I can tell you that it will never be the case until developers start thinking content is seperate from presentation, and OSes are designed with rules in place that make keeping content seperate from presentation layers something do able.

Technically, it should be content is seperate from presentation is seperate from function. The OS should have rules on what content can be included, how it will look, and what functionality can be extended to it given certain rules that the developer creates. That would make for the most maleable system.

---

Its very possible to make a shell to the IT that is both finger friendly and takes best advantage of the smaller screen. My personal idea is that of of a "slide and glide shell" where transistions to screens happen through gestures and motion. Things such as scrolling, zooming, and notification prompts utilize physics (kinetic and yaw) to do things such as make a device left or right handed, and manage several "slides" (think windows without borders) as it works best for this mobile context.

Elements of this are already in play with Canola, Mauku, and the upcoming WordPy, but they are barely scratching the surface. If the shell has this mannerism/paradigm as its rule of engagement so to speak, then its just a matter of a developer pulling out the funcitonality by creating rules, rather than creating functionality to do this.

That's about as far as my ideas go for now. I'll mock something up and put it on the TabletUI blog in a few weeks time.
 

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#196
Originally Posted by ARJWright View Post
I'm very close to writing out how this can be done. Depending on the response to WordPy's next version, I'll know what works in exactly this kind of UI approach.
Yes, it will be a good test.
If I receive many people complained, I forwarded them to you

Though if the developer and the designer are happy with it, I think it's a step towards the correct way.
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GeneralAntilles's Avatar
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#197
Originally Posted by Texrat View Post
...and so we're back to the concept of separating code logic from the UI, ie, skinning. I agree with the comments made in that regard. It would be awesome if there were a desktop analog to CSS-- or, if CSS was just extended and embraced by application developers at large to the point that anyone could slap any interface on any app (or even OS), regardless of its intended platform or purpose.
It's called Glade.

Unfortunately, the reality is that stuff like that is usually comes with more negatives than it's really worth.
 

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#198
Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles View Post
It's called Glade.

Unfortunately, the reality is that stuff like that is usually comes with more negatives than it's really worth.
There have also been some attempts to make a GTK theme engine that uses CSS.

Last edited by iamthewalrus; 2008-08-28 at 20:57.
 

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qole's Avatar
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#199
I hereby claim the wonderfully oxy*****ic term, "deep skinning"

Deep skinning, as bizarre as it sounds, captures what I want from a theme engine. I don't just want the shape or colour of widgets to change, I want the ability to move widgets around, or even hide them completely (with the ability to slave them to other controls, if possible). I want to be able to rearrange toolbars and menus, too. I want to be able to replace scrollbars with something else. I want to be able to take any user interface element and run it through my "deep skin" and have it behave in a way completely consistent with my interface.

<pieinsky>I want to be able to take a handful of standard GTK+ media apps, and just through skinning, make something like Canola.</pieinsky>

If this were only the case, maemo Abiword wouldn't need to be stuck in an eternal Beta mode with a broken on-screen keyboard, the Debian version would "just work" on the tablet, and it would look like a Hildon app.
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Last edited by qole; 2008-08-28 at 21:47.
 
Bundyo's Avatar
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#200
Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles View Post
It's called Glade.

Unfortunately, the reality is that stuff like that is usually comes with more negatives than it's really worth.
Nah, its called GTKBuilder. Glade will eventually also be supported in i think GTK3, but its only GTKBuilder native support for now. And CSS is very far from that.
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