[TUHS] Early GUI on Linux

Arno Griffioen via TUHS tuhs at tuhs.org
Tue Feb 28 03:59:21 AEST 2023


On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 06:22:09PM +0100, Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS wrote:
> It is in stark contrast with developments at the lower/consumer end of the 
> market. The original Mac, GEM and Windows all placed much more emphasis on 
> being a graphical user interface, with standard widgets and UI design 
> elements. 

In my experience, compared to the above, many AmigaOS users would use the 
Workbench environment a lot more like the X windows setup.

Aka. with several concurrent 'shell' windows open and having access on 
later versions to native scripting langauges like REXX and such to even 
automate 'windowed' applications.

And even though AmigaOS also had lots of built-in libraries and 
style guide stuff, many programmers would still do things s lot more
their own way as far as look&feel went than for instance on MacOS.
(and yes... it often was a bit of mess like X can be ;) )

Not sure if the fact that things like Windows and MacOS were basically
single-tasking or at best cooperative multitasking also influenced
the use (enforcement?) of their standardised look&feel and code.

Aka. breaking the mould just wasn't useful for programmers on these
platforms or was perhaps even detrimental to the user?

							Bye, Arno.


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