NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/sys/amiga/applicat/8458

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-08 | 2.6 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Dave O'Brien)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: ToolManager 2.0 Likes/Dislikes
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 5 Nov 92 22:02:42 GMT
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In article <9FHLr*[e-mail]> Michael-Wolfgang Hohmann,
[e-mail] writes:
>-> -> I spent the weekend setting up ToolManager 2.0, and I must say
that it takes
>-> -> quite a bit of work, and performing repetetive tasks to get the
thing running.

I agree. TM2 is great once it's set up, but the normalized OO approach
takes a frightening number of keystrokes/mouse-clicks/requesters to get a
program set up in the menu or dock. Much more roundabout than 1.5, though
I can see how the new approach would be good for reusing objects (which I
don't need, 99% of the time).

TM2 seems to suffer from the data-driven approach to user interfaces -
the structure of the data (in this case, the object orientation) decides
how the user will interact with the software to set it up. By itself, it
ignores the fact that users (me, anyway) don't approach tools in a purely
data-driven way.

BTW, CanDo 1.6 has the same problem. Nice product, good results, but to
move an object on the screen, you have to go knee-deep in nested dialogs
because the x-y coordinates of the object are knee-deep in the data
structures. I hear that CanDo 2.0 will have a new "move" mode to bypass
the nested structures. Same data being changed, but more natural for the
user.

Similarly, to make the interface kinder and gentler, Stefan may want to
consider adding some options that make the setup a little more fluid for
each object. Like what? Well, maybe have a few extra buttons or a rollo
gadget in the EXEC window, so when you define an EXEC object, you can
click a button to *automatically* add it to the menu/dock/etc. using some
default name, the program's icon, etc. You could then customize it later
with a fancy brush icon or descriptive menu entry. The point is, you
could set up TM and get it working for you much faster...

While on the topic of TM, I'd love to have submenus in the Tools menu -
for applications, games, etc. My Tools menu is getting *really* long, and
even with separators there's too much to look at. In the docs, Stefan
mentioned this as a "harder" thing to do (I think), but it would be
*really* great.

Enough already  :^)