Re: How uniform can GUI clients be?

Mark Murphy wrote:

> While we may depict a folder/directory differently, the context menu
> operations to be performed on one should be fairly consistent (i.e.,
> add, remove, update all, commit all, ... for a folder/directory).
> Similarly, most of the options off of the window menus should be
> similar. There are still likely to be platform-dependent options in both
> types of menus, but we can probably get 80% consistency. After all, the
> goal behind uniform GUIs should be transferable knowledge (if I know GUI
> A, I can figure out GUI B quickly) vs. absolute identical functionality.
>
> Thoughts?

At an even higher level, thought should be given to what the user-
visible objects and actions are, and those should be the same across
platforms.

For example, what is the representation of a branch? Is it an
explicit object, a bunch of side effects on other objects, or both?
Can I simultaneously view two branches? How do I compare two
branches?

If the GUIs are in agreement about those (and their model is usable),
we'll be doing well.

Okay, branches are hard, and probably the wrong thing to design first.
But you could ask the same questions about tags or revisions.

-- 
                                        K<bob>
kbob_at_jogger-egg.com, http://www.jogger-egg.com/