CompuServe Messages

#Interface Design

    24-Mar-89 12:49:33
Fm: Syndesis 76004,1763
To: John Draper 76703,4322
I don't think it would be beyond the ken of most concerned Amiga programmers to sit down and define a set of functions that a file requester should have. If it starts doing the wash for you, it's not a file requester. Yes, I think we could learn alot of from the Mac requesters, or the NeXT requesters, or whereever anyone wants to look. Given two file requesters, who would disagree that the simpler one would be more appealing to the novice? How many complex functions could be added on top that simple requester, without clutter? What set of shifted keys could make the requester do complex things? Far too often, the religious discussions about file requesters circle around someone who has already coded a requester, and doesn't want to change their code. I don't recall any requester that was created from the ground up, from text descriptions to IFF pictures and finally to code. It's too difficult to change user interfaces on the Amiga, and far too often, that's behind the reticence of programmers.