Blog: Slowly getting closer...

[Z98]

https://www.reactos.org/node/820

[theuserbl]

Nice. Now all controls are on the same place as in Windows.
But isn't the design of the explorer-window and of the deskbar not Copyright by Microsoft ?

Greatings
theuserbl

[gigaherz]

The layout of a GUI isn't copyrightable.

EDIT: To extend the explanation. Copyright protects the act of replicating the original content. In the case of a piece of software, the original content are the bytes in the file. Even a pixel-perfect imitation of the program, even if such pixel-perfect imitation generated the same exact bytes when processed through a compiler (which is -surprisingly- extremely hard to achieve, even for open-source programs), if the imitation was not produced by copying or converting the original bytes, it does not constitute a copyright infringement. It may, however, involve trademark infringements and/or patent infringements.

[EDITED the edit -- missed a typo]

[PurpleGurl]

To answer the question posed in the entry, I found 3 differences. They are all in or near corners of the window. The first I noticed was the incorrect icon in the upper left corner. Then I noticed the missing My Computer text and icon in the lower right. The third difference took some straining to find, and that was the missing "shadow" or line to the right of the toolbar and the address bar.

[Ey3]

Great job!

[gigaherz]

To answer the question posed in the entry, I found 3 differences. They are all in or near corners of the window. The first I noticed was the incorrect icon in the upper left corner. Then I noticed the missing My Computer text and icon in the lower right. The third difference took some straining to find, and that was the missing "shadow" or line to the right of the toolbar and the address bar.

Then you missed the biggest? The addressbar is not implemented yet, so it has no text... ;P

[dsp8195]

[deleted]

[gonzoMD]

Some things I wouldn't be so happy about:

* File extensions are hidden, so user can only distinguish them by icons.

IMHO it makes it easier for most windows users to use/access files. I am sure that 99% of all unexperienced users use Windows (the remaining 1% use Mac because it's Apple). It begins with such stupid things like renaming a file with it extension and it stops to work. I would keep it as is and let everyone choose byself if one would like to hide or show the extensions.

Some* The branding/logo box.

Some people would feel there's something out of place without it. I'm not. I think this logo only distracts user. Should be a way to disable it if people want to. That branding logo/box originally was used by Internet Explorer for its page loading process animation. It's meaningless for the Explorer.

You're correct if you say that it makes no real sense. I think it's usefulness could be implemented in ReactOS, so eventual file progress could be shown on it's place (copy or move progress for example).

[cruonit]

* The menu item names are understroked it should only be shown when Alt is pressed but it's just graphic sugar

[cruonit]

i think the right way would be to write the extension in a bright gray and the filename in black like google does in chrome addressbar (the http part and the GET parameters) or to write it in the details section of the Tile of the LV_VIEW_TILE (it's not implemented in Wine/Reactos !!).
[ external image ]

you can see the results here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12293

that will be a problem for reactos explorer.
LISTVIEW_SetView
....
if (nView == LV_VIEW_TILE)
FIXME("View LV_VIEW_TILE unimplemented\n");

is not implemented in comctl32.
Maybe we could ask Nikolay Sivov(nsivov{at}codeweavers.com) or Daniel Jelinski <djelinski1 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> from wine that implemented the SetView function to take a look at it / finish it before reactos explorer gets finished
http://source.winehq.org/git/wine.git/h ... listview.c

[gigaherz]

Some things I wouldn't be so happy about:

* File extensions are hidden, so user can only distinguish them by icons.

This is totally NOT a good thing to reimplement, or have you forgot how trojans and viruses were disguising themselves with folder icon extracted from shell32.dll and preventing user from accessing Folder Settings dialog? Even thought it's a vital part of the Windows experience, hiding .lnk extension is not a good idea either, because there are applications which use this extension for their own formats! That means before hiding .lnk's extension, the shell must first check if it's a valid link file, and if it's not - don't hide anything.

Although I see your point, this is not something I am reimplementing myself, and not my choice. The contents of the listview are provided by the windows shell, and the IShellItem::GetDisplayName/IShellFolder::GetDisplayNameOf methods return the text as it is meant to be displayed. If you want to see such a security measure, you may want to request/discus it at the ros-dev mailing list instead.

* The branding/logo box.

Some people would feel there's something out of place without it. I'm not. I think this logo only distracts user. Should be a way to disable it if people want to. That branding logo/box originally was used by Internet Explorer for its page loading process animation. It's meaningless for the Explorer.

The logo box was already there when I joined the project. Again, it's not something I have decided to implement, so if you want to see it gone you'd have to make a "formal" proposal for it. Meanwhile, they are paying me to implement the classes, and fix the bugs, so that our explorer looks and behaves like the Windows one, both for users, and for software using its functions/classes.

[erkinalp]

I would keep it as is and let everyone choose byself if one would like to hide or show the extensions.

All other alternatives(except MS Windows' built-in one) show the extensions by default. And showing the extension by default will not cause any incompatibilities. Only thing we need to do is document that default for the user if that behavior is approved amongst the developers.

[vicmarcal]

Nice. Now all controls are on the same place as in Windows.
But isn't the design of the explorer-window and of the deskbar not Copyright by Microsoft ?
Greatings
theuserbl

Graphical User Interface as is an Interface is not copyrightable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Comp ... osoft_Corp.

Regarding icons:
We are not going to use Windows iconset. Right now the work of gigaherz is using Windows icons because he is running on Windows, hence explorer-new finds Windows icons and loads them(they are stored in shell32.dll iirc).
When explorer-new runs in ReactOS, it shows ReactOS iconset (tango icons or whichever we're using).

[gigaherz]

We are not going to use Windows iconset. Right now the work of gigaherz is using Windows icons because he is running on Windows, hence explorer-new finds Windows icons and loads them(they are stored in shell32.dll iirc).
When explorer-new runs in ReactOS, it shows ReactOS iconset (tango icons or whichever we're using).

Yep that's right.

[theuserbl]

Graphical User Interface as is an Interface is not copyrightable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Comp ... osoft_Corp.

Thanks for the link.

But how far can ReactOS go with copying the GUI?
On the Windows Desktop, links to programs (*.LNK-files) have on the left bottom an arrow. On ReactOS with the current explorer by Martin Fuchs, this arrow is on the right bottom. If GUI-design can not be copyrighted, then on ROS the arrow could be instead of the right side on the left bottom, too. Right ?

And what is with the text in the menubar and toolbar?
In the screenshot, it is the same like in XP.
Can the completely menu (with all separators and every menu-point) be copied?
For example, to close a program you could write "Exit", "Close", "Quit", "Close Program", "Exit Program", "Quit Program", etc. But is it allowed to call every menu entry exactly like Microsoft have done it?
Then internationalization is also no problem. If you can use the english words in the menu, then you can use the different translations for other languages, too.

Regarding icons:

I know.

Greatings
theuserbl