Needs educating: Message from Linux (fwd)

[Kirk Wood]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Charles Crawford wrote:
> ... I wonder if there are some folks out there 
> familiar with XWindows to share the kind of navigation that goes on with 
> it?  ...

Hmm, this is a bit of a tricky question. The short answer is that things
are enough like m$ winblows that people quickly adapt. A bit longer is
that keyboard shortcuts are limited in the window managers I have used.

This being said, I think that once a windows manager has been made
accessible, then most applications will be as well. I don't think you will
see the m$ situation where some apps are and some are not. The thing is
that in X, one can choose the window manager (or shell) of the
system. Many of these include the ability to add skins to customize the
look (and sometimes even feel) of the system. Apps that don't behave with
the skins aren't popular. Thus a button will be a button more often. In
the m$ world, often companies make their own button which isn't
recognized. This doesn't happen as much in X as it would then crash out
with other window managers or not conform to the skin. You see one can
change their buttons from being rectangles into being ovals. They can
change them from flat to raised. If this happens correctly, it is
reasonable to think that one could use the same info to tell what it is
for speech.

=======
Kirk Wood
Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net

Nowlan's Theory:
        He who hesitates is not only lost, but several miles from
        the next freeway exit.