My apologies to the list for flaming. While I stand by the
substance of my comments, the tone was inappropriate.
Focus style is a matter of personal preference. Applications should not
assume a certain focus style. If an application design requires a
particular focus style, the requirement should be documented and the
developer should make a good faith effort to either inform users of the
procedure for setting the desired style, or point users at the source of
this information.
Explicit focus is fine in a novice setting, but it works against the user
who understands and wants to take advantage of a multitasking environment.
Just because I do something that makes a program request input (i.e., I
click on an icon that brings up a dialog box) doesn't mean that I want to
(or even can) provide that input right away. Consider an analogy: Let's
say that you call Bob and leave a message for him to get back to you, then
hang up and call Joe. While you are dialing Joe, Bob gets your message and
calls you back. In the explicit focus world, you don't get a choice: Joe
is put on hold (or hung up on - I can provide an example) and you have to
talk to Bob.
Why do developers treat free software differnet from commercial? Imagine
that you are porting a Windows app to a Motif environment, and you
encounter a similar difference between Windows' and Motif's way of doing
things. Would you threaten to not support Motif? Of course not; you would
alter your design.
Some of us choose fvwm because the industry standard doesn't work
for us. If the only concern is to comply with "standards", why bother
developing for any other platform than Microsoft? That's where the
industry is. Thouse of us who choose to use free software such as Linux
and fvwm are natually testy about criticisom that amounts to "it's not
the same as motif."
- Jim
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Received on Wed Oct 23 1996 - 16:01:41 BST