Re: Look & feel, future plans

[Nicola Pero]

> > I guess some of the reasons I'm not very fond of the vertical menu is:
> > Having more than one application open at the time clutters the screen, 
> > as the menu's overlaps eachother, I have to separate them, and I end up 
> > having a confusing mess of menus.
> 
> I don't understand - the only menu that is visible is the one 
> corresponding to the active application.
> I think the vertical menus are a very distinctive and useful part of the 
> interface - I would be quite disappointed if they went away.

Don't worry - they won't go away :-)

I hope we can support other types of menus - eg horizontal - as well (via
user defaults) if some users want that (and it looks like the case) - but
the default interface will always be the NEXTSTEP like one.


Generally, the philosophy of the GNUstep UI is 

 * keep the default look&feel to be the original NEXTSTEP like one, with
as few changes as possible (some changes maybe needed eg to run with
different window managers [eg running in click-to-focus] or on Windows).

 * allow this to be customized in different ways to make a wider audience
of users happy.


Why is the default look&feel like the original NEXTSTEP one ?  The reasons
more or less are -

 - one is that one of the aims of the project is to build a NEXTSTEP like
system, but free - and many core developers and/or long-term fans :-) of
the project are really keen in seeing a NEXTSTEP like interface.

 - the NEXTSTEP UI is really a very good starting point - very well
designed, very well documented, very consistent, very user friendly.  
Even if you don't like all of it, it's generally agreed that it is an
extremely well done user interface.

 - the NEXTSTEP UI is well integrated with the API.

 - having a documented standard default behaviour we want to implement
means we all agree on how the standard default behaviour should be.


On top of that, the general idea is that we welcome options to allow users
configure the system to suit their needs and wishes - even if that means
deviating (a little or maybe in some cases a lot) from the NEXTSTEP
look&feel.

We don't have many options deviating from NEXTSTEP look&feel currently :-)
- granted - but it's simply because they weren't implemented yet - not
because there is a special religious prejudice against them.

As soon as the NEXTSTEP one remains the default, you can add options on
top of that allowing users to change the behaviour.

Adding options is technically difficult in some cases - also because we
really want solutions of very high quality (solutions which match the
quality of the framework), and because the UI is somewhat linked in the
API in some cases - so it's difficult to touch the UI without breaking the
API.  But generally speaking, except for technical details of how to
implement that cleanly and how to fit it in the framework, configuration
options (eg, allowing a horizontal menu) are welcome.

I hope this also answers at least partially the original post.