🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <18063@bellcore.bellcore.com>, sjs@spectral (Stan Switzer) writes:

>Hmmm.  A closet SunView user.

I confess. I use several window systems, with perhaps most of my
experience with SunView. But OpenLook/Xview also supports this.

>This is nice.  I assume that since a user coming back from coffee will
>probably jostle the mouse a bit he won't be confused by an invisible
>mode (i.e.: have already pressed the mouse twice, next press selects
>sentence).

It is a mode - yes it is true. And as Peter pointed out, you see the
selection. The only time this is a problem is when the machine is
bogged down and you mouse ahead. You can lose track of the number of
clicks.

I think an important to note is that the multiple-clicks does
change the state of the selection service communicating between
windows,
but this is a passive servant until you ask it something like cut,
copy or paste.

That is, if you multiple click to select text - it doesn't hurt or
change anything.

>
>> > Any other action, like poping up a menu, really slows down the user
>> > (With the exception of Don Hopkins Pie Menus, which can be
>> > selected before the menu appears. You can even select an item
>> >  from a nested menu before it appears!)
>>
>> I've heard of these. They sound cool.
>
>Make no mistake: they are.

I just started looking at Don Hopkin's PSIberspace - his NeWS window system
debugger. Now THAT is something!! I would love to see him use it in action.

Let me see if I can summerize it in a few words:

	It is a purely NeWS based program - written in NeWS,
		(no compiling, resides 100% in the window server).

	It has a debugger to NeWS of course. Mouse based.
	You can display all of the data types. Each type gets a
	different display. Dictionaries can be opened, classes
	browsed.

	You can edit any item. There are special buttons that let you
	do the C equivalent of x++ or x =* 2; Each item type has it's
	own editor.

	You can use the mouse to select/move the structures around
	dragging objects from one dictionary to another.

	As PostScript is meta-circular, (you can define PostScript in
	PostScript). Don has included a NeWS interpreter that can
	single-step code.

	His system uses pie menus - of course. His windows also have
	tabs off them that stick out. You can expose/move windows
	around by using the tabs.

	And if that wasn't enough to display the information in a nice
	table/graph structure - he allows you to view data using the
	right side of the brain - which lets you see the entire
	structure at once! Each object is a different shape, with
	strings being lines and the length of the string corresponding to the
	size.

	You can still browse/edit the data using this view.
	The dictionaries are actually round windows that you can open
	up!


There is no doubt in my mind that NeWS (or X11/NeWS) is the most
flexible, powerful window system around. All other window systems look
so rigid and boring in comparison.

I must thank the Net Gods for people like Don Hopkins and Stan Switzer
for showing us what REAL window systems can do.

--
Bruce G. Barnett	<barnett@crd.ge.com>   uunet!crdgw1!barnett