[Desktop_architects] Re: Portland: How to fix this situation

[Otto Wyss]

Dan Kegel wrote:

>http://wyoguide.sourceforge.net/guidelines/content.html
>which appears to be something like the GNOME or KDE Human Interface Guidelines
>(http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/ ,
>http://developer.kde.org/documentation/design/ui/ ) ?
>
>Or are you trying to get people to switch to developing
>apps using wxwidgets?
>I agree with you that cross-platform development is the way
>to go.  OSDL should try to encourage this.  However,
>we shouldn't try to favor any particular toolkit.
>
>  
>
Let me explain my relation between wyoGuide and wxWidgets. When I 
started this project I just discovered wxWidgets and then named it 
wxGuide because I thought that's the way to go. But a user doesn't care 
what framework or what language is used, he cares for if the "Quit" menu 
can be activated with Ctrl-Q and if this menu is located in the first 
menu at the bottom. And the user cares a lot if _all_ his applications 
are this way or not. Therefore I changed its name to wyoGuide and added 
the forth paragraph on the front page. wyoGuide does _not_ require 
wxWidgets!

I have to admit I am a fan of wxWidgets because I personally think it’s 
the best framework and I use C++ because I personally think there is no 
alternative. Of course others may think different. For wyoGuide this 
means all code _I_ create will use C++ and wxWidgets. But if someone 
thinks his framework is the best, he should just translate all the 
sample code to his liking and submit it to wyoGuide. I've no reservation 
to add sample code for other frameworks as long as a certain minimal 
number of guidelines are supported. Especially for GTK+ and QT it would 
be nice to have sample code and hopefully a fully working demo application.

The guidelines is a mixture of all the guidelines mentioned here 
(http://wyoguide.sourceforge.net/guidelines/reference.html), from 
looking and using applications on three different Computers and of my 
experience throughout of about 30 years developing SW. I wrote my first 
FORTRAN program in 1973 and probably have gone through each development 
phase from Algol to Ajax. I don't consider me a top developer, probably 
more average, but from the developers I've met and the code I've seen, 
I'm probably one of the best who is able to think like a user and see 
his needs.

>p.s.
>It looks like you want to jump right in and show everybody The Way To Do Things,
>which is great, but you'd do well at least on this mailing list
>to limit yourself to fewer and shorter posts, lest you overwhelm us :-(
>
>  
>
Sorry I didn't want to sound like a prayer. I know the application 
problem on Linux since several years (I started wyoGuide in Jan. 2003). 
And I was astonished that the nr. 1 inhibitor of a Linux desktop 
adoption wasn't discussed at the architect meeting (you didn’t mentioned 
anything relevant in your log).

Since you now know wyoGuide I won’t mention it again. You may ask 
questions about wyoGuide either here or in wyoGuide mailing lists 
whatever you prefer.

O. Wyss

-- 
Application guidelines: http://freshmeat.net/projects/wyoguide/
Cross-platform Editor: http://freshmeat.net/projects/wyoeditor/
Cross-platform Filemanager http://freshmeat.net/projects/wyofiler/