Re: GWorskpace (un)usability

[Nicolas Roard]

On 2003-06-14 17:35:44 +0000 Stefan Urbanek <urbanek@host.sk> wrote:

Hi,

> > > 6. What do you think about renaming GWorkspace to use something withoutprefix? 
> > > if Workspace.app is taken by NEXT/Apple, there are still many possibilities 
> > > that can reflect what this application is doing: Workplace.app, Desktop.app, 
> > > Browser.app (from file/object browser), ...
> >
> > No problem! Choose a name and I'll rename GWorkspace.
>
> Workplace? :-)

I'm not sure why we couldn't take Workspace... else Workplace is a good name :-)

> > Probably, in this occasion, I'll also assign GWorkspace to the FSF, as 
> > suggested by David Ayers.
> > (Excuse me, David, if I report here some line from a private mail)
> > "
> > ...
> > First of all I'd like to thank you for all the work you put in GWorkspace! Now as 
> > GWorkspace is the "official GNUstep workspace manager" I keep wondering about 
> > something...
> >
> > "Why is an official GNUstep application not part of the GNUstep project?"
> > ...
> > "
> >
> > This only to say that, if GWorkspace is so "unusable", why it should become "part of 
> > the GNUstep project"?
>
> ah, ok. my second apology, the word unusable was not appropriate. it is 
> unusable for me. as i said, gw is a piece of software that we need and you have 
> put of your work in it. And I fully agree that such application should become a 
> part of GNUstep project. It is part of the gnustep environment anyway 
> (NSWorkspace class).

Well then we have another (small) problem : the definition of GNUstep. Is it a 
programming framework or a Desktop ?
I would stick with a programming framework. A Desktop based on GNUstep
should be another project. Some "desktop" applications already exists and it's 
perhaps about time to create such a project. What do you think ?

> > > Workspace should be The Entrance to the GNUstep Environment. (G)Workspace 
> > > should provide good user experience. I do not think that scaring away users 
> > > right at the front gate is good for gnustep.
> >
> > Due of my very bad English, I've just looked in the dictionary for the world 
> > "scare" and I must say that I dont like the mean. But I don't want to polemize.
> > I repeat: get a new version, install it correctly and all the stuff will work.

I have GWorkspace installed here... what bothers me is generally the lack of
responsiveness of GW. It's not so fast, as it should be. Backgrounder's icon is 
also annoying.
That said, GW did a *huge* progression since one-two years, and
it's nearly really useable for a lambda user. There are still some graphics 
glinches (perhaps due to GNUstep, I don't know), and overall it should be 
faster. I'm optimist and happy with the progresses so far, but there are still
some work to do.

> > GWorkspace has *many* users. And it helps in finding new GNUstep users; If I 
> > look in my mail, I can find about two mail/week written by people that is 
> > trying to build it without GNUstep...

They should be more :-)
--
Nicolas Roard