hoak
Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Jan. 2005 |
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Posted: Jan. 10 2005,01:43 |
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I really love DSL, and it looks like a lot of other people do too! I'm not a huge fan of the Flux Desktop though, as I got to try a system with Ion and was spoiled forever.
A TWM like Ion would be ideal for a Distribution like DSL because it's very tiny and offers some really progressive advances in User Interface Design that could not only let DSL introduce people to Linux effortlessly but some really cool alternatives Linux offers you can't find anywhere else.
I wrote a little introduction to the TWM, and have sort of reedited it here for DSL.
A TWM for Open DSL
It's my hope that DSL Developers might consider a TWM at least as an option to Flux and others conventional and frequently copied cascading windows, desktop, icons and taskbar paradigm.
A lot if not most the of current crop operation system user interface design (mainstream and alternative) is based on making commercially marketable and attractive interfaces that are 'familiar' but are increasingly removed from any real studied analysis of how computers are actually used, or real interface utility -- often even ignoring substantial research and testing that has been done on user interface design.
Interfaces incorporating cascading windows, desktop, task 'bar or manager' are very manipulation intensive i.e. the user frequently has to perform an inordinate amount of redundant and repetitive interface manipulation work just to accomplish the simplest task. DCW GUIs (Desktop Cascading Windows) are also wasteful of screen real-estate and clearly comporting useful information without substantial manipulation and re-manipulation.
What Is A TWM
A TWM -- Track (or Tiling) Window Manager is an alternative to the 'desktop' and 'window' paradigm of the traditional cascading window desktop design metaphor. Fundamental concepts behind TWM design include:
· screen real estate is precious
· computers may multi-task well but people may not
· people may multi-task marginally well but cascading windows make that impossible
· complete windows management/customization using only the keyboard
· avoiding redundancies through inheritance
· reduction of manual window positioning and management
The TWM interface paradigm in essence 'tiles' all windows so that 100% of all screen real estate is in 100% use 100% of the time comporting 'visible' information. TWMs typically incorporate default keyboard and mouse shortcuts that allow for automatically resizing windows to preset 'tracks' or sizes according to user preferences and include zooming features to make one window the largest or full screen application. Interface 'widgets' may include a 'tab bar', and/or integrated and unified tool and menu bars that have 'inheritance' features for the dominant application(s).
How It Works
In a TWM the 'desktop' is the work space and the application interface concurrently -- all open applications may have a window visible as a 'tile' or 'track'. Windows too small to comport normal application content may be reduced to icons, tabs, or some specialized 'ticker' representation of the application that offers relevant information.
Sophisticated TWM interfaces like 'Gadgets' for Oberon have unique modular elements that can be dragged and dropped between windows or tracks.
The 'never overlapping' paradigm of a TWM makes mouse operations like drag and drop much more practical utility and value, and much less of an exercise.
While many early TWMs extol the elimination of the mouse, modern TWMs allow for fast and clever mouse driven window interactions; double click to maximize a window, left-click to re-tile, scroll wheel or click-and-drag to size.
Menus, tool-bars, icon trays or even 'in-window' based desktop metaphors can be inherited reducing redundant wasteful interface clutter, excessive mouse movement, manual repositioning and window shuffling.
Oberon Gadgets is one of the oldest and most forward looking TWM interface designs, integrating GUI and programming interface with a high granularity graphic object oriented modules and unique user interaction; even the Oberon boot console 'windows' and is a TWM.
Benefits
· can be designed to less resource intensive then cascading windows systems
· make drag & drop or cut & paste operations across applications much easer
· automates window management
· less redundant mouse movement
· less eye strain (Swiss Study*)
· allow for shared 'inherited' interface widgets further simplifying the interface
Summarily TWM is about making the window manager do the window management not the user. Clarity of information presentation, ease of interaction, interface efficiency, efficacy, transparency and form that truly follows function are paradigms that drive TWM design.
Links to hallmark TWMs
· Oberon Gadgets
· Ion
· 8˝ (Plan 9)
· TrsWM
· Ratpoison
· PWM
Screenshots
· Oberon Gadgets
· Ion
· 8˝
· TrsWM
Although the TWMs represented here for illustration may not be as 'sexy' or 'cosmetically evolved' as more conventional desktop interfaces; there is certainly plenty of room for elaborate facade and art to be added.
A Sort Of Summery
DSL is a high utility OS, that also offers a great introduction to Linux, that will run on a very light-weight hardware specification, encourages wide distribution due to it's small size, embedded offering and how easy it is to try out. This give DSL a lot of opportunity to expose a lot of Linux Noobs (like me) to some of the real and very functional alternatives Linux offers not available on other Operation Systems that can raise the bar of value and and real utility of the OS.
DSL's utilitarian approach to content that appears to that pursue real utility and appeal through form that follows function, and a 'better way of doing things' would I feel be very well served by offing a TWM like Ion as an option to it's default interface.
A Note
I'm very much a Linux Noob and I'm not associated with Ion in any way. In fact other TWMs may be much better and more applicable to DSL, and there may be other TWMs I was not able to learn more about and try out (I'm still fumbling with installing this stuff and making it work and only got to try Ion because it was already installed on a friends PC).
Also there also 'Tab Window Managers' are sometimes called "TWM" and these follow the much more conventional approach to desktop cascading window design.
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DSL Market ,
Great VPS hosting provided by Tektonic
), but considering the amount of effort I've put into customizing and learning everything I can about Fluxbox over the last couple of years I just haven't taken the time to explore it the way I'd like to. A keyboard-driven, low-resource window manager is ideal for any system running ancient hardware, and the fact that Ion uses Lua is an even better reason to try it in DSL. 
