blog: WTL docking framework

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Apr 10, 06:11

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/10Apr11-WTL-docking.htm

although this is a programming article, you can clearly see the implications for xplorer2 v2.0!

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 14, 15:12

Heh, never missed the docking stuff in x². (OK, maybe the preview thingy. A bit.)

I hope in v2 there won't be bars with ugly, non-disableable toolbars like UltraExplorer has...

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Apr 14, 18:05

if it is docking, you inevitably lose some space for the titlebar, otherwise you don't have a drag handle

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 14, 18:08

Technically, the whole bar could be draggable.

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Apr 15, 08:09

ok i made it so you can lock the dockbars to lose the titlebars. Once docked they stay in place but can be resized like splitters

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 15, 12:39

Great, thanks.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Apr 15, 13:07

I feel a skinning-support-wish nightmare coming on... (then again, it could just be those pan-fried butterflies I had for lunch)

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 15, 13:08

Skinning sucks. I want my OS to have a unique look&feel. (That's one of the reasons why I boycott Chrome, too.)

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Apr 15, 14:36

Tuxman wrote:Skinning sucks. I want my OS to have a unique look&feel.

Umm... isn't that a contradiction? Skinning (in the popular consensus) == Unique Look & Feel, no? Women nest, men skin things. 'Tis the way of nature.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 15, 14:46

OS-drawn controls are not skinned.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Apr 15, 14:54

Wouldn't that be vaguely intentional (in a homogenised "user-recognition" sense of the word)? I mean, what do you want, drop-downs to drop-up? Or sideways? Or input boxes to glean information via the mysterious osmosis devices the CIA have implanted in our LCD's?

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 15, 14:57

I want a native look. See, I prefer the Windows Classic theme, so I want my applications to look like a Windows 98/2000 one. On Aero, the application should look like Aero and so on. Skinning may have reasons (Winamp's freeform skins, for example, allow a great flexibility), but where's the need for it in a file manager?

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Apr 15, 15:42

Ah, well, deriving a distinction in the modern user between what they need and what they want rather goes back a few years (Voltaire, et al).

Tuxman wrote:...but where's the need for it in a file manager?

Probably the same so-called "need" that it satiates in Anti-Virus applications, Hex Editors, or Browsers - that is to say, there's obviously little gain in functionality (aside from perhaps legibility of how fonts are rendered), but it does have an odd ergonomic effect: people identify with things via their interface, given even the smallest illusion of freedom (hey, look, I change stuff!) and people imagine that the software they're evaluating or using can be moulded to fit all their expectations, thus they are more likely to take to it permanently. Humans are, for all our self-imagined depth, rather superficial creatures at the end of the day.

And the object of the game (partially) is to convince the highest number of superficial creatures to part with their money. Most sales-web-pages all parade the "functionality" on offer within a given programme, but (humans being humans) journeyman users tend to make judgements based on less salutary insights. Unfortunately, File Managers are not immune to the same impulses that make a mockery of the sexual revolution.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Apr 15, 15:56

Kilmatead wrote:people identify with things via their interface, given even the smallest illusion of freedom (hey, look, I change stuff!)

So what does it tell you about me that I like my Windows oldschool non-transparent 3D and grey?

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Apr 15, 17:59

Tuxman wrote:So what does it tell you about me that I like my Windows oldschool...?

As per a previous colourful colloquy of ours, it tells me that I prefer skinny chicks, and you prefer a more "robust" variety. As such, existentially, I am aware (given the logic of gene-pools) that in a few generations your progeny will be able to beat the bejesus out of my progeny on the playground, but I don't care about that, so in the end your preference is "technically" better than mine, but values have nothing to do with it.

So, non-transparent 3D and grey for you, Aero for me, and poor Nikos can sort out the details to keep "those on the fence" happy.