[Desktop_architects] Re: Printing dialog and GNOME

[Tuomo Valkonen]

On 2005-12-14, Jeff Waugh <jdub at perkypants.org> wrote:
>
><quote who="Linus Torvalds">
>
>> Having strict UI rules ("The HID says so-and-so") that are really a
>> religion that you're not allowed to question. The whole notion that things
>> are supposed to be done just one way is antithetical to what makes open
>> source successful in the first place.
>
> If we didn't promote simple construction standards across our desktop, every
> application would look, feel and work differently to everything else. 

Not if UIs were written at a more abstract level instead of directly
tinkering and smearing hands with widgets. The latter is the antithesis of
all good software design and abstraction principles, but is the dominant way
of writing software these days. In a better world, the UI-generation
back-end of the user's choosing would ensure uniformity of common UI
patterns, and in a manner the user desires, instead of the developers of a
particular collection of software. Global uniformity, one-sits-fits-all
policy dictated by the developers, UI designers or bosses to the users is
not desirable. Local uniformity, the user requesting all programs to behave
in a particular manner, and the developers enabling this choice, is very
desirable.

-- 
Tuomo