One of the problems with software development is that these
newfangled GUIs offer very few useful abstractions. For
example, I have low-level access to input devices.
Generally you use the (x, y) coords of the mouse and some
sort of "if left-mouse-button down" conditional. The
keyboard is similarly "low level", with your program
capturing key presses. This is a dumb way to handle input
devices for two reasons: it's more work for the programmer
and it encourages modal and inconsistent interface design.
Window-level control is similarly low level; whoever allowed
programmers to gain focus should be shot. The person who
decided that applications get any control over window
management whatsoever should be forced to stand behind him.
It'd also be nice to see languages that are better adjusted
to their environments -- "if (user-input)" should be enough
information to display an appropriate user interface without
having to mess around setting up widgets, making them
visible, and so on.
BM
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:39:10 MDT