News and announcements
Eliminate Menubars
Written for GoldOS by john on 2009-12-31
Recently there have been many moves to eliminate the menu-bar from the user interface. They are scarce in the Windows 7 UI, they are no longer in Chrome, and there have been some moves to hide it in Firefox 4.0, so now would be a good time to get together and get rid of this outdated user interface tool. Here is some of the reasons for this change:
- Menu-bars in General:
The biggest reason actually for ditching the menu-bar widget in GoldOS is the idea that all menu widgets should come to be from right clicks. Most people associate menus with right-clicks in their head to some extent, so the menu-bars are a sort of anomaly.
In addition to this the menu-bar generally wastes a lot of horizontal space within the row in which the menu-bar is contained, and the user usually looks at other elements within the UI so most of the time the horizontal space which is used is also being wasted. This is even worse in the global menu-bar since the global menu-bar is farther from the application, so the user tends to completely forget about it.
Finally, menu-bars, even global ones, are not really that good for speed in common tasks. Hotkeys and other keyboard commands are generally the quickest way for a user to repeat common tasks, most experienced users will use crtl+c to copy, rather then go to edit/copy.
- Applications/
These menus seen in Gnome 2.0 are far inferior to the corner targets seen in the Mezzo Desktop, due to Fitt's Law and the fact that you can right click the corner targets as an alternative way of getting to these menus.
- Local Menu-bars:
These menus take up a lot of space when more then one application is visible at the same time, they are essentially inferior to the global menu-bar because of Fitt's Law, and they do not work very well if the window is moved towards the bottom-right part of the screen.
- Global Menu-bars:
The problem with these menu-bars is they do not work well with multiple monitors, they form a panel that takes away screen space from applications, they are rarely looked at since they are farther away, and they should be close to the window because like things should be grouped together.
- GoldOS
GoldOS originally used the local menu-bar as that is what most people are used to, it was soon realized that global menu-bars utilize Fitt's law, save space and they are much more efficient for a webpage's special needs. However, it is now becoming clear that the global menu-bar is often forgotten about by the user and that it would be better to associate menus with right-clicks, as such soon the menu-bar will soon get their own file, only to be loaded if the user really wants them.
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Here is the alternative that will be implemented in GoldOS. Menus will come to be when you right click the empty space in the titlebar, or perhaps if you click a hot-key such as alt. There may also be an option to use a Treeview or a desktop-wide menu to access an application's functions.
Microsoft Silverlight
Written for GoldOS by john on 2009-09-08
I have got my chess application running in Microsoft Silverlight now. This seems like a good solution for those people that have Internet Explorer, because Silverlight's performance is relatively good. It is certainly better then VML.
http://
Many Internet Explorer users still do not have Silverlight though, as such basic HTML and VML is still an option for those out of date people who pretty much reject all modern technology and plugins.
I suppose their could also be a Flash and Java port of the Canvas system, although, I do not know how good they would be. It would certainly be an interesting option to consider. I understand though that Raphael is also something interesting to consider because of how it works with both VML and SVG. I still prefer Canvas because of how its performance is the best in Google Chrome and Firefox, so it is good for advanced application development.
As an OS developer I support Canvas as such, its performance is of the sort that is necessary to make the high performance JavaScript applications of the future.
GOLDOS Version 1.6!
Written for GoldOS by john on 2009-09-07
Today I would like to announce the launch of GoldOS version 1.6, this new release has several new features.
http://
As you can see from here the programs menu is moved to where users would expect it - to the bottom left corner of the screen. Furthermore, it uses a treeview instead of a menu which has some advantages if you are opening up more then one application at a time.
Furthermore, you can see the Taskbar has been changed. Now the Taskbar will show you your currently selected window that you are dealing with. Also the checkers application is fully featured now, you can play a full game with promotions and all. The chess program is also fully featured, you cannot do any illegal moves except for those that leave your king in check. You can do all the legal moves including promotions and empassant.
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This screenshot shows the other new features - a Desktop process. This process is still in the works, however, it basically shows how we are going to be looking at things in the future in GoldOS. The Desktop currently uses big icons and you cannot do drag and drop operations yet. That may be added in GoldOS version 1.7.
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In addition to everything else, the start screen in GoldOS version 1.6 looks nicer for the user.
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Internet Explorer Support
Written for GoldOS by john on 2009-09-06
HTML User Interfaces:
http://
Minesweeper is a good example of an HTML user interface that I have built that works well in Internet Explorer. It does so by abstracting with YAHOO libraries, which create objects that will do all the work to make it so that your HTML manipulations work in Internet Explorer as you would expect them too. Furthermore, I tend to use QEvent right now because it is a lightweight and useful library.
Canvas User Interfaces:
http://
My chess application actually works in Internet Explorer because of the VML backend for the Canvas tag, known as EXCanvas. It will get slow though over time, the good thing is that it works.
SVG:
SVG images in Internet Explorer are exported to PNG so that they be viewed, this results in a worse user experience, but at least it works.
Treeviews and Menus
Written for GoldOS by john on 2009-09-05
Treeviews are simply views of the tree data structure, a data structure in which consists of children which can have children of there own which can have children of their own and so on. However, menus are the same thing. Menus are views of the tree data structure as well. The difference between menus and treeviews is very small, they are just two ways of views the same thing. As such it makes sense to group them together so that you can make any menu into a treeview:
http://
Futhermore, I have extended it to use icons and other features of menus so your user experience is going to be very similar to what you would experience with menus.
http://
In the future I hope to extend trees into XML markup storage, although it is still necessary to make trees that are generated by JavaScript functions. I may also make a Canvas alternative menu/treeview system for those individuals who are interested in using a web browser that isn't called Internet Exploder. The user will not get to select the underlying architecture for the view - that is something that should not be configured - it should be determined by the web browser.
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