Re: [Usability]A Challenge: Describe the GNOME 4.0 interface.

["Miguel A. Arévalo" <marevalo marevalo net>]

*** GNOME 4.0 "Finally it has happened" Release Notes.
Boston, Ms, USA
Redmond, Wa, USA
Berlin, De, EU
Calcuta, India

Hi to all the merry ..... blah blah blah blah

*** What's new in GNOME 4.0 ?

-- Gtk 4.0

The default theme for Gtk+ 4 is the same as the one in QT 8, in memory 
of  TigerT who was murdered by masses of KDE and GNOME supporters after 
publishing this theme for both toolkits and declared he won't do any art 
more until that was accepted in both default distributions. We'll miss 
him but his sacrifice made us see the light, this is the best SVG-based 
theme in all this years.

Following on that, Gtk+ is no longer themable, in fact there are no more 
themable applications throughout the GNOME desktop.

There isn't any file picker widget in Gtk+ 4, why should a widget 
library interact with file systems ? Use gnome-vfs dialogs instead.

Pango now supports glyhps of our newly found and beloved alien visitors 
from Proxima Centauri.

--- GNOME Core

We're almost there, at this moment the only differences betwen KDE 8 and 
GNOME 4 are the use of C, GTK+ and GDA, all the other infraestructure 
(gconf, arts, gstreamer, etc.) bits are shared.

After de Mono debacle both KDE and GNOME has settled in the use of 
Bonobo 3.0 for out of process communication and well known source 
compatible APIs for libraries. (Well, now we all use Debian, why should 
we care about library versioning or binary compatibility? ).

--- Nautilus 2.0

There is no longer an option for using another folder apart from $HOME 
as the desktop.

Nautilus no longer works with directory structures, all desktop 
organization is made with emblems, they are matched with attributes by 
gnome-vfs on those filesystems that support it (like ext3 and XFS) but 
of course it works muuuuuch better on XFS as these attributes are 
effciently indexed. Nautilus vFolders are now ontly views of the 
filesystem based on these attributes. If you have to browse other 
directories than $HOME you will need another file browser, let's hope 
Linus accept that directories are death and we could all move together 
to the new Attributed Filesystem Paradigm.

--- Gnome Panel

There is no such thing anymore, you can still use the 3.0 version but it 
hasn't been tested.

The Panel Applet API is now called Nautilus Applet API, you can still 
add applets using the old 3.0 API to the Nautilus Destop.

All the menus (now only Debian menus) are accesed right-clicking on the 
desktop, but you shouldn't use it anymore as GNOME will be only document 
and task centered in the upcoming 4.2 release.

*** Download information:

Source:
   apt-get buid-dep gnome4
   apt-get -B gnome4

Binary:
   apt-get install gnome4

Or you can user Gnome-apt or Red Carpet.

We need volunteers for building RPM packages, please drop me a mail if 
you want to volunteer.

____________________________________________
Biblios.Org: All your Book Are Belong to Us.

Gregory Merchan wrote:

> Describe the GNOME 4.0 user interface.  Be specific and optimistic.
> Don't say such broad things as:
>  "It will suck."
>  "It will be great."
>  "It will be easy to use."
>  "It will be intuitive."
>  "It will be a pain in the ass."
>  "It will automate gegls."
>  "It will look just like FooOS."
>
> Describe as many specifics as you have time to.
> E.g.,
>  The GNOME menu
>  Application menus, toolbars, etc.
>  Theme
>  Help
>  Documents and document handling
>  Audience
>  Panels
>  Hardware stuff.
>
> Be optimistic, but try not to suggest something that couldn't be
> done in a few years like "transmogrifies gegls into lemurs" or
> "Demonstrates that NP=P."  Something that another OS had or has
> may be a good candidate; like:
>  Data is automatically saved. (Xerox Star, OS/2, PalmOS)
>  Provides a universal macro mechanism. (MacOS, Emacs)
>
> Don't worry about other people saying you're on crack.
>
> Don't say someone else is on crack.
>
> Have fun with this.
>
> If you won't have fun with this, then filter out any replies now.
>
> If you are having fun with this, please keep a similar subject line
> so those that aren't can easily filter.
>
>
> Why? We've got a HIG, and that's jolly good. It's stil changing (slowly).
> But the HIG will probably always be limited to what application writers
> need; it doesn't, and probably shouldn't, give the big picture. But the
> big picture is really important and often hard to see from the details.
> A definitive big picture document is far off now; hardly anyone is talking
> about it. This should start that by getting ideas out in the open. The
> GNOME Usability Project was once the GNOME UI Hit Squad and before that
> probably something else. There used to be some implicit interface guidelines,
> a few style guides, and lots of application UI mockups. Attempts were made
> to bring all this together and after time and flame wars the HIG emerged.
>
> It is my hope that replies to this will be like the pre-Hit Squad days -
> but without the flamewars. I hope that from there people of like minds
> will get together and form detailed comprehensive proposals.
>
> A final note:
>  I encourage mockups as appropriate, but please don't attach them.
>  Provide a URL instead.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Greg Merchan
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