[Lazarus] cross platform [Re: Lazarus Goal]

David Emerson dle3ab at angelbase.com
Fri Nov 13 09:04:58 CET 2009


Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
> Some quick examples were applications don't follow the "look & feel"
> rules of the platform, yet users have no problems in using them.
> 
> * Windows Media Player.
> * latest Microsoft Office with it's new menu+toolbar design
> * Pixel image editor. It fakes native look. But looking closer at it,
> it is quite different to native platforms, yet users don't seem to
> have any issue with using it.
> * And the biggest one of them all. The INTERNET. Websites and Web
> Applications like Gmail, Facebook etc... It adheres to NO single
> platform, yet billions of users use the internet every day and don't
> have problems using it. If you can read the screen, you can use the
> interface.

I suspect these are the exceptions, rather than the rule. The vast 
majority of the time I am presented with a non-standard interface, I 
find it to be awkward and difficult to use, and it doesn't usually get 
any better from there. A few examples that come to mind:

* anything by hp (printer/scanner software in particular)
* non-standard installer programs (thinking of hp again)
* vi
* emacs
* the earthlink totalaccess toolbar
* almost any antivirus / antispyware program

...there are many others, but it's hard for me to think of them because 
I don't use them!

The best broad example I can think of that may be in agreement with what 
you're suggesting is SymphonyOS and the Mezzo ui. I thought it was very 
cool when I first learned about it in 2006, but it looks like the 
project has been abandoned. I've got this "MezzoGreyPaper.pdf" here, 
but I can't find a working link to it. It's almost like it disappeared 
off the internet... very strange.

Cheers,
David





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