Re: Proposition for a Gorm feature Was: Gorm too complex ?

[Chris Hanson]

I don't see what the big problem with saving WYSIWYG positioning 
information is.

You'll want to re-do your model files for different platforms anyway. 
GNUstep on Unix likely mimics the NEXTSTEP interface conventions, 
while GNUstep on Windows should mimic the Windows interface 
conventions, and Cocoa on Mac OS X uses the Macintosh interface 
conventions.  I'm sorry, but you're *not* going to build a system 
that generates a good-looking, highly-usable interface on all of 
these platforms with no extra work on the part of developers trying 
to use it.

Just look at the difference between Macintosh and Windows conventions 
with respect to buttons in dialog boxes:  Macintosh dialogs -- for 
left-to-right top-to-bottom languages anyway -- are supposed to have 
buttons labelled with verbs in the bottom right, lined up 
horizontally.  (I'm simplifying, the real guidelines are slightly 
more complex and include spacing rules etc.)  The default button 
should be non-destructive and in the bottom right.  Windows, on the 
other hand, has had various conventions over the years.  I believe 
the one that stuck -- with the exception of property sheets -- 
involves lining up equally-sized buttons along the right side of the 
window, with the default button labelled OK at the *top* of a column.

NeXT came up with a good workaround for this.  You can say

  didLoad = [[NSBundle defaultBundle] loadNibNamed:@"foo"];

and on OPENSTEP, "foo.nib" will load while on OPENSTEP Enterprise on 
Windows NT "foo-windows.nib" will load.  I'm pretty sure it did the 
right thing if foo-windows.nib didn't exist -- which will work in a 
pinch -- and that you could even create foo-windows.nib by 
duplicating foo.nib, renaming it, and then switching the interface 
style in Interface Builder.

This shouldn't be too hard to make work on GNUstep when the time comes.

  -- Chris

PS - One of the big things that has held GNUstep back over the 4 
years I've been following it is feature-creep.  Just an observation.

--
Chris Hanson                      |  Email: cmh@bDistributed.com
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