NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/os/os2/misc/40767

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-31 | 3.6 KB

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Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Opinion: What IBM should change in OS/2
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail] (Hamish Marson)
Date: 1 Jan 1993 12:43:33 +1300
References: <[e-mail]> <roelle.725743641@uars_mag> <[e-mail]>
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Organization: Comp Sci, U of Waikato, New Zealand
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Colin Jensen) writes:
|In article <roelle.725743641@uars_mag> roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle) writes:
|>[e-mail] (Lewis Kawecki) writes:
|>>    It would be nice if the use could decide if they want to change windows
|>>by just moving moving the cursor (like X) or by clicking the mouse.  The user
|>>should also be able to decide if the active window always comes to the fore-
|>>ground or if the title bar has to be clicked on to bring a windows to the fore-
|>>ground.
|>
|>Not forgetting of course the X feature of pushing a window to the back
|>by clicking the right button.
|
|None of these admittedly nice features are in fact features of X.  What
|X has, that PM lacks, is the ability to almost infinitely customize
|the user interface behavior with respect to how the user manipulates
|windows.  In fact, it is possible to make X behave *exactly* as PM does.
|

OK. Lets talk apples and apples here. What you are saying is that the OS/2
graphics system that the WPS is built on is unable to look like anything but
the WPS. In a word. Wrong.

X is to (Any damn thing), like PM is to OS/2. A windowing system.
WPS is to OS/2, what Motif or OpenWindows is to X.

|I for one, would like at least a bit of X's versatilty in PM.  For example,
|I don't like click-to-type.  [And yes, I'm sure many of you do like it]
|It would be nice to make click-to-type, and many other UI properties
|*optional* and configurable.
|

That would be a function of the WPS, as it is of the GUI when running over X.
Its not X-Windows that does that, but the Window Manager. A completely
seperate program that 'controls' the display, using the X-Windows protocol
to talk to the X Server.

|However, I do *not* expect IBM to permit this - and here's why:  If
|you let people customize their UI setup, it becomes hard for an experienced
|OS/2 user to just walk up to an OS/2 machine and use it - because he
|WON'T KNOW which mouse actions will invoke what behavior from PM.
|

You can already do that. FOr instance I prefer the left button to drag an icon.
Not the right like OS/2 defaults to. ALso the mouse buttons can be reversed,
and modified even more (CTRL, ALT's and double clicks etc).

|Moreover WPS is already overbloated and slow as it is.  The OS/2 1.3
|shell makes WPS look like a snail.  I love the features they have added
|(at a cost of speed), but how much speed are we really willing to pay
|for the UI?
|

Maybe when they optimise some things. But you are right about the WPS speed.
And more customisation features for the interface would be great too. As would
multi-threaded message queues. Blocking a system on one flakey window (Even if
the system does eventually detect it) is a crappy idea.

|--
|Colin Jensen
|[e-mail]    [e-mail]


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