>
> Barry A. Warsaw wrote:
> >
> > SR> Unless you care to dispute the fact that most people are
> > SR> familiar with explicit focus, or that explicit focus is easier
> > SR> to learn for novices, the correct default setting seems clear.
> >
> > Do you have statistics. I'd really like to know how many of users
> > that are aware of having a choice between the two models, actually do
> > prefer to use click-to-focus, as opposed to just having no idea they
> > had a choice and using whatever mwm or dtwm gives them as a default.
> > You might be right, but I'd still like to see the results of a study.
> >
>
> maybe we should vote on this, to get some impression.
A reasonable thing to do, but only if you ask the tens of millions of
Windows and Mac users and billions of non computer users to vote too.
After all, we're talking about what's best for most people, not the
few power users who know exactly what the issues are and what they
want.
> For me, I use pointer focus. I remember when I was first
> introduced to the X-window system, I immediately adopted
> the pointer-focus model. I have been using it since.
You were probably not given any choice and accepted the default. This
is a common event, and one we should recognize means that the default
setting is important.
> I remember that, when I was a novice with this, I found it counfusing
> having the pointer in one window and typing in an other...
Actually, early research at Apple clearly showed that the opposite was
more likely to be a problem, usually because a dialog opened. For
example, the naive user's first reaction when a file selection dialog
opens should be to attempt to type in a file name. This only works if
the dialog gets the focus when it's opened. Unless you want to head
down the slippery slope of pointer warping, this means explicit focus.
Your confusion was undoubtedly due to the situation where you've got
multiple xterm windows open, since the opposite problem occurs when
you've got a modern GUI application (and by that I mean one that uses
dialogs and palettes). It's still amazing to me that people who work
primarily with the "stone age" version of GUI technology (xterms) have
the nerve to stand up and say that pointer focus is superior and
should be the default. My whole point is that given the choice, most
people want true GUI applications instead of command-line tools, and
that these applications work better with explicit focus. A point that
no one has provided a defensible argument against.
If we can't do any better than xterms as a primary work environment,
the X market is going to continue its slide toward oblivion because
people just won't bother with it when there are GUI systems that give
them everything they want and need without having to use a
command-line interface.
Scott
> Ondrej
> --
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--
***************************************************************
Scott Raney raney_at_metacard.com http://www.metacard.com
Tcl and ksh: syntactic gymnastics
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Received on Wed Oct 23 1996 - 15:37:58 BST