Complete the thought: And *Y* is that the WM default...? :-/

Post #197,161

by CRConrad

3/4/05 7:21:11 AM

Post #197,163

by pwhysall

3/4/05 7:36:58 AM

Because that's what NeXTStep did...

...and WindowMaker is the nearest thing to a complete implementation of GNUStep (the Free version of NeXTStep) that exists.

Personally, I think NeXTStep only looks nice when it's running on one of those dandy NeXT computers; it looks good from a distance but when you get up close it's very 1995. Of course, one of the problems is that there areally aren't all that many applications that run within the GNUStep framework; there are a few, but there's no GNUStep browser, for example[0]. However, one benefit of coding to GNUStep is that you can trivially modify your application to compile on OS X.

[0] Unless, of course, someone wrapped Gecko up in GNUStep when I wasn't looking.

Post #197,169

by CRConrad

3/4/05 8:33:33 AM

Sigh... So why did THEY do that, then? A: Because most...

...most people are right-handed, I (to borrow an expression) wot.

[link|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode|Christian R. Conrad]
(I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.)

Your lies are of Microsoftian Scale and boring to boot. Your 'depression' may be the closest you ever come to recognizing truth: you have no 'inferiority complex', you are inferior - and something inside you recognizes this. - [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=71575|Ashton Brown]

Post #197,171

by pwhysall

3/4/05 8:47:14 AM

I wot that your wot is wotful, I wot.

Post #197,172

by Another Scott

3/4/05 8:55:08 AM

Werd.

Post #197,215

by altmann

3/4/05 2:11:50 PM

I don't know but ...

When I ran WindowMaker I would have the Dock on the right and have windows minimize to icons down the left side of the display, starting at the top. I think the default was across the bottom from the left. (Mac OS X has combined the two into one dock so you can't do that anymore.)

--
Chris Altmann

Post #197,292

by static

3/5/05 8:25:18 AM

I really don't know.

But I suspect that if they'd originally put the Dock on the left then it'd probably be there today. Even for right-handed people.

WM has a Clip which functions a little like a dock but the app icons are local to each screen. The Clip is, by default on the left. I left it there and put things on it, too. The value of the Dock was that the apps were there in every screen. The value of the Clip was that the apps weren't.

I may have been more inclined to get used to WindowMaker's Dock because a) I'm right-handed and b) it lives on the right of the screen but the reason I choose to mimic it there has less to do with the fact that I'm right-handed than that I had gotten used to it there and found it useful and convenient.

Besides, because of how we read (left-to-right, top-to-bottom), our brains associate different importances and roles to things on the left and right edges. With the left-aligned text usually in use in applications, one's attention tends to be towards the left. Having the Dock on the right helpfully and automatically dissociates it with the main content on the screen. I'm not as convinced as you are that mere right-handedness can be used to explain such a preference. :-) OTOH, the vast majority of the population down through the ages being right-handed has undoubtedly influenced the writing system in use in European languages... (-:

Wade.

Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed

Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please

-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne.

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