[Lazarus] cross platform [Re: Lazarus Goal]

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Graeme Geldenhuys schrieb:

> 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.

I cannot use the media player or media center, due to its aberration 
from any application look&feel. Somebody else may be happy to use his 
computer like an CD/DVD player, but I had to buy an DVD player first, so 
that I could read how to use it :-(

> * 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.

Dunno what you mean, never used newer versions of such tools.

> * 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.

This is an argument for a Web (Delphi IntraWeb?) layout, portable across 
platforms, because it doesn't rely on any platform specific conventions 
- except for the framework and interaction between multiple pages 
(application forms). We might have to rethink the entire application 
GUI, so that e.g. the placement of menus or other panes can be changed 
by a simple exchange of a CSS, on every platform, by every user. The 
same for themes, now also configurable by CSS.

DoDi