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Re: I think It was Peter Luka's install abstraction proposal...
On 11-Oct-97 jfm2@club-internet.fr wrote:
This would be more appropriate in seul-dev-ui, so I'll put
a cc there. Hope ppl won't mind.
>1) It [the WM] must be able to update its menus automatically. There
would be
>nothing worse than having a beginner clicking on a menu entry and
>seeing than nothing happens. Redhat's FVWM95 comes with m4 scripts
<...>
>Windowmaker don't have a builtin pre-processing capability like the
>FVWMs, neither has OpenLook and in all cases you will have to write
>the scripts. That rules them out.
In fact WindowMaker is the only WM I know of that actually updates
its menus on the fly, and can also quite easily form a menu based on
what files exist in a directory; see below. Now, to make things clear:
I use WindowMaker and like it. I feel that with some development it
could be a strong candidate for a WM. I'm not, however, saying it's
the only choice.
>2) A configurator. If you want to change the Look and feel of your
>desktop you should be able to do it without hacking. Afterstep has
>one. I don't know one for the FVWMs. WindowMaker and OLVM don't have
>one. Notice than a configurator is LESS important than automatic
>upgrading of menus.
This is a point where we'll need to excercise some care. It's frustrating
to have millions of options, but it's equally frustrating to be limited to
a few choices that don't affect the big fundamental design flaw. Personally
I find the two WM:s with the best default looks/UI:s are WindowMaker and olvwm.
Both have limited configurability, though. It's possible to configure fvwm
really great, but it takes a lot of work. And there's no configurator for fvwm.
I think such a program would be quite easy to write for WindowMaker.
>3) Look nice. That rules out TWM. :-)
Again, based on _default looks_, I'd vote for WindowMaker and olvwm. Besides,
WindowMaker has these cool animations... :)
Just my comments.
--
Juhana Siren (Mr.) - Juhana.Siren@oulu.fi - http://rieska.oulu.fi/~jsiren/