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The "loop and a half"

bartc bc at freeuk.com
Sun Oct 8 07:46:48 EDT 2017 
On 07/10/2017 15:40, Steve D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Oct 2017 11:54 pm, bartc wrote:
> 
>> So my programs that use Escape on Windows needed
>> to use Escape Escape on Linux to get around that.
> 
> 
> Or you could just follow the expected Unix interface instead of inventing your
> own.

Your job is to port an editor that people have been using for 30 years 
to Linux. The first thing you do is to change all the commands and 
shortcuts to match what is typical on Linux? So that no-one who was 
familiar with it as it was can actually use it?



> Back in the days when I used a Mac (long before OS X), I used to hate it when
> Windows developers would port their software to Mac. With the exception of a
> few big software companies like Microsoft, who had actual Mac teams, they
> would do what you do: completely ignore the Apple UI guidelines and port
> their unfamiliar and arbitrary user interfaces to the Mac software, making it
> essentially unusable.

What is it with those who write OSes in that they have to tell everyone 
how to run the show? An OS's job is to run programs and do whatever the 
program requests.

BTW, how did the Apple UI guidelines come about; where they copying 
existing practice, or did /they/ decide to come up with something new 
and incompatible with anything else? And if the former, then you ask the 
same question of Xerox or whoever.

Just look at any interactive page on the web, they all work differently. 
People are used to it. And it allows innovation.

-- 
bartc
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