canasia.org

Things used to be incorporated in the Mac interface because of the way they worked, now they are being removed and replaced by inferior systems.  The only reason for this appears to be because the inferior systems are familiar to Windows users - which hardly bodes well for the future of Mac as an alternative to Windows. Really down to your opinion of inferior systems, which I am happy to not agree with. I am happy to have windowshade as long as it can be switched off.

Peter C. has (elsewhere) presented the idea that because he likes the Dock, it's great.  That's invalid argument.  I present the idea that because the Dock has particular defects, it's bad.  That's not invalid argument for all that it might not be correct. I'm not saying the Dock is as good as it could be - far from it. And there are certainly some usability issues with it. So yes, certain aspects of its design are distinctly sub-optimal. That doesn't stop it being useful _to me_. And me. It seems the best approach to what it does, qualified with both from what's available and for me . It's certainly not the best it could be, but it's the best I've found.         -zoara-

I loved Windowshade the instant I met it and frequently suffer a pang of sadness at its absence.  So your claim that it's a bad UI idea is clearly wrong. If a single person 'loving' it is the measure of good UI design, then surely Clippy (or Bob) would count as good UI design?         -z-

sorts of daft excuses for Apple - I don't understand why.
... więcej ť

I loved Windowshade the instant I met it and frequently suffer a pang of sadness at its absence.  So your claim that it's a bad UI idea is clearly wrong. If a single person 'loving' it is the measure of good UI design, then surely Clippy (or Bob) would count as good UI design? I don't think I met anyone that liked the paperclip!

Funny, aint it, that I was able to use iMovie and iDVD to produce a DVD of some video I had shot, complete with some simple _title_ and transitions, within 60 mins of first using these apps. All I knew was that: 1) the apps existed 2) they had something to do with editing video and producing a DVD 3) I had used Mac apps before and had a general idea of how they work (Mac apps that is, not iMovie and iDVD) Bully for you. I can't do things like that.  Yes, I have tried.  Frequently.  I've asked for help too.  No use.  If I don't have a manual or near equivalent, I'm usually stuffed. Well then I sympathise. Right, now - it was OmniGraffle, wasn't it? Let me tell you about Visio, then. Why, you ask? Because OG is supposed to be the equivalent for the Mac (Visio is WIndows only) and it can open Visio files. We use Visio at work for: 1) Network maps 2) Rack layouts The network map has a load of boxes on it (routers) connected by lines (circuits). You can lay the boxes out in a window and then draw lines to connect them. You could use Powerpoint/Keynote to do that too, but the neat thing in Visio is that you can define a hotspot on the edge of a box and have the connecting line snap to it. And, you can then move the boxes around and the connected lines move too, they stay joined to the hot spots. Visio will also make little semicircular hoops where lines cross, if you ask it to. You can ask it to constrain the lines to be horizontal and vertical only, then it figures out where to put the corners in the lines. Or you can have lines with bezier curves etc. You can also do all the usual drawing things of grouping items together and aligning their centres or left edges etc, adding label text to boxes, lines. Or rotate or flip _object_s if you want them the other way up. I'm prolly not more than scratching the surface of its capabilities here. For rack layouts we use Visio to draw front, rear and side representations of racks with equipment in them, for installation purposes (e.g. I've just done that as we're getting new kit installed in Sofia and Bucharest). Generally speaking I suppose you'd call it a tool for making engineering drawings. Some vendors supply templates of drawing _object_s. You can plonk these in the window and when you put them near each other, they snap together, properly aligned - built in hots spots again. What's irritating about Visio is that it has trillions of tool bars with trillions of shitty little icons on them. If you don't have the docs you can waste a lot of time - this is an app that does have a steep learning curve. The little I've used OmniGraffle on Visio diagrams tells me it is much better in that regard. Anyway, hope that's marginally clearer.