3 ms·

Please write about some of these UI features, I would love to hear about it! I never got to play with it, because it demanded a much better computer than I had.

guessbest 6y ago
I think the GP was referring to features that were advanced for the day, but these days we take for granted, like a system control panel controlled entirely through a GUI rather than any text files like Autoexec.bat and config.sys
- ptx 6y ago
  Also features that we should be able to take for granted but are broken or missing in current systems, such as spatial file managers. In OS/2 and classic Mac OS, folders you opened would remember their window position and other properties (including custom background image in OS/2) so that you could find things in a very human way by remembering e.g. "the small blue window in upper left". Windows 95 copied this in a slightly broken way – you could open the same folder in multiple windows at the same time and give them conflicting properties, which breaks the model. Windows 98 (and the IE 4 upgrade to Windows 95) merged the whole thing with the web browser which broke it even more. Mac OS X also had a half-broken implementation of this, since the file manager tried to combine the Mac OS Finder with the NeXTSTEP file manager which was completely different. John Siracusa has written extensively on this topic: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/
pjmlp 6y ago
I also did not own it, but got to play with it at conferences and read quite some literature back then. Here is some information that does better justice than I would be able to do, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Extending_the_Workplace_Shell_with_Object_REXX http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Extending_the_Workplace_Shell_... https://books.google.de/books?id=GL59pngdbfQC&pg=PA542&lpg=PA542&dq=workplace+shell+object+orientation&source=bl&ots=j2fO0SEMYF&sig=ACfU3U3rbvQf2W-GytIjEy-xxn9xsHAtyg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDyOyz0vfoAhXmQRUIHShrBoYQ6AEwBnoECA4QAQ#v=onepage&q=workplace%20shell%20object%20orientation&f=false https://books.google.de/books?id=GL59pngdbfQC&pg=PA542&lpg=P... https://books.google.de/books?id=yurvRCerf_UC&pg=RA1-PA515&lpg=RA1-PA515&dq=workplace+shell+object+orientation&source=bl&ots=sXjWjc4tB_&sig=ACfU3U1K3v7o14_FQzVelIt_lsHi9DOj_Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDyOyz0vfoAhXmQRUIHShrBoYQ6AEwB3oECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q=workplace%20shell%20object%20orientation&f=false https://books.google.de/books?id=yurvRCerf_UC&pg=RA1-PA515&l...

guessbest 6y ago

I think the GP was referring to features that were advanced for the day, but these days we take for granted, like a system control panel controlled entirely through a GUI rather than any text files like Autoexec.bat and config.sys

ptx 6y ago
Also features that we should be able to take for granted but are broken or missing in current systems, such as spatial file managers. In OS/2 and classic Mac OS, folders you opened would remember their window position and other properties (including custom background image in OS/2) so that you could find things in a very human way by remembering e.g. "the small blue window in upper left". Windows 95 copied this in a slightly broken way – you could open the same folder in multiple windows at the same time and give them conflicting properties, which breaks the model. Windows 98 (and the IE 4 upgrade to Windows 95) merged the whole thing with the web browser which broke it even more. Mac OS X also had a half-broken implementation of this, since the file manager tried to combine the Mac OS Finder with the NeXTSTEP file manager which was completely different. John Siracusa has written extensively on this topic: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/

pjmlp 6y ago

I also did not own it, but got to play with it at conferences and read quite some literature back then. Here is some information that does better justice than I would be able to do, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Extending_the_Workplace_Shell_with_Object_REXX http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Extending_the_Workplace_Shell_... https://books.google.de/books?id=GL59pngdbfQC&pg=PA542&lpg=PA542&dq=workplace+shell+object+orientation&source=bl&ots=j2fO0SEMYF&sig=ACfU3U3rbvQf2W-GytIjEy-xxn9xsHAtyg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDyOyz0vfoAhXmQRUIHShrBoYQ6AEwBnoECA4QAQ#v=onepage&q=workplace%20shell%20object%20orientation&f=false https://books.google.de/books?id=GL59pngdbfQC&pg=PA542&lpg=P... https://books.google.de/books?id=yurvRCerf_UC&pg=RA1-PA515&lpg=RA1-PA515&dq=workplace+shell+object+orientation&source=bl&ots=sXjWjc4tB_&sig=ACfU3U1K3v7o14_FQzVelIt_lsHi9DOj_Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDyOyz0vfoAhXmQRUIHShrBoYQ6AEwB3oECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q=workplace%20shell%20object%20orientation&f=false https://books.google.de/books?id=yurvRCerf_UC&pg=RA1-PA515&l...