[ros-dev] ReactOS UI Team - Concept, Plan, and: help wanted

[Rick Langschultz]

I agree with MF. I think the UI is inconsistent, but with some work  
it could be modified. I think that "explorer" should look something  
like Windows XP glitzed up ui, however may i suggest taking parts  
from firefox or something to create Javascript type collapsable  
panels like that of XP's explorer. Of course this could be turned  
off. I think that another feature could be incorporated into  
something like this... XML-based right-pane context menus. The  
context menus would be based off of XML files either embedded within  
explorer or in a subfolder in C:\reactos. These XML files would  
contain macros for quick tasks. Example:

<ContextMenu>
     <Action trigger="click">
         <Command execute="Explorer.Copy.FolderOrFile.getCurrentFile">

Of course there would be many commands and contexts, but this would  
allow users to define XML style macros. Call it something like  
AppleScript
On Oct 6, 2005, at 1:50 PM, Aleksey Bragin wrote:

> Hi, our UI Team Coordinator - mf - asked me to sent this email on  
> his behalf, because unfortunately mails from his address doesn't  
> reach any mailing-list.
>
> Here is the original message:
> From: mf <mf at mufunyo.net>
> Date: October 6, 2005 1:20:56 AM GMT+04:00
> Subject: ReactOS UI Team - Concept, Plan, and: help wanted
>
>
> Greetings ReactOS developers and interested parties!
>
> For the unintroduced, I am your humble UI coordinator. In addition,  
> I also made some graphics for the project.
>
> -Concept-
> I am here to remind you of a post that was made in the ReactOS user  
> forum, written by crappish (Mikko Tikkanen). In it the author wrote  
> of the need of a consistent user interface, the need of people that  
> actually have knowledge of such things, and how these people would  
> have to be in charge of enforcing such an interface. They should be  
> familiar with Windows, know how to make things accessible and  
> newbie-friendly, and have enough creativity to improve on existing  
> concepts. In addition to that, there should be someone who  
> represents this team and can interface it with the rest of the  
> project, and make sure everything is the way everyone wants it to  
> be. Now, this representative has been chosen. But there is no team  
> to back him up!
>
> -Recruiting-
> So getting down to business. The UI team is recruiting two kinds of  
> people.
> Primarily: Programmers who have sufficient knowledge to hack other  
> people's code, even if said code is rooted deeply in system  
> libraries. Skill in writing user interfaces and piecing together  
> dialog resources. No advanced skills beyond that required. This is  
> most important, since developers in this category can get straight  
> to business and get started on improving ReactOS.
> Secondarily: Interface concept designers who have advanced  
> knowledge of human interfacing, easy access, logical positioning,  
> and the creativity to improve and expand on existing ideas. This is  
> a secondary category because a) right now there is little to do in  
> this respect, b) there are already two (counting Mikko?) of these  
> people in ReactOS, and c) for every 1 concept designer, there can  
> be up to 10 implementing developers.
> Even more appreciated, would be someone who fits both gloves and  
> can write code AND design interfaces. Sadly, experience proves that  
> these two traits don't usually come together in one person.
>
> And! Just as important, though not actively recruited, I welcome  
> icon designers, graphic designers, font designers (that includes  
> you, wierd_w!), sound effect samplers, and programmers willing to  
> implement missing UI features (think of things such as extended  
> cursor/icon support, alpha blitting, runtime freetype  
> configuration, recycle bin functionality, control panel, autorun  
> support, etc), on individual application (mail me at mf at mufunyo.net).
>
> -Plan-
> The plan(tm) to kickstart the UI team is as follows:
> Our first goal will be to make the surface experience of ReactOS  
> familiar. Surface in this context means the things a user will see  
> during and after bootup. This mainly involves modifying explorer;  
> to display a consistent and familiar start menu, and to show a  
> friendly explorer when My Computer or the Explore link is opened.  
> This means making all the surface icons consistent (my task),  
> modifying explorer's interface (the 'programmer' category), and  
> figuring out the best layout for the start menu (the 'designer'  
> category).
> There is no plan past this first task, because I cannot predict how  
> small or big the team is going to be, what feedback we are going to  
> get, and how fast things will move.
>
>
>
> And that's it for my first big announcement. I hope this will get  
> some discussion going, and some balls rolling. I would also like to  
> take this  opportunity to request a mailing list for the UI team,  
> this should have been set up right after the coordinator vote was  
> over, but it wasn't-- so to whoever's in charge of that, I count on  
> you. Thanks.
> Please reply to this mail only on the general list or to me in  
> person (if you're not on the list and only get digests), it is only  
> crossposted in ros-dev to get a wider range of attention.
>
>
> Thanks for reading,
> mf.
>
> _______________________________________________
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Rick Langschultz
rlangschultz at cox.net (Home)
rlangschultz at ellemaespa.com (Work)
rlangschultz at email.uophx.edu (School)


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