From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
From: forsyth@vitanuova.com
Message-ID: <982233290.10786.0.nnrp-10.d4f0e306@news.demon.co.uk>
References: <96ddmk$aaa@netnews.hinet.net>, <3A8AE5F1.B248273A@null.net>
Subject: [9fans] Re: Does Inferno Support Drag and Drop like windows?
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 10:46:57 +0000
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 65fd7cee-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025


i've set the followup line to comp.os.inferno.

> Does Inferno Support Drag and Drop like windows?
>>No, it's much better.  Check out Acme.

It can support it:

1. start the directory browser.
2. start the editor.
3. use mouse button 2 to drag the image of a file in the directory browser window to the editor.
4. release button 2.

wm/dir.b, wm/edit.b and a few other things support it and show the mechanism.

it's hardly used these days: it's too clumsy for the common case of viewing an image or selecting
a file for editing.  what's used instead?
try this for comparison:

1. start the directory browser.
2a. touch the image of a text file using button 3.
	or
2b. touch the image of a .bit file using button 3.

the latter is controlled by the plumbing language (see plumbing(6)).

one of the problems with the Windows-style interface especially on small screens
is that the thing dragged-to is often obscured by the thing dragged-from,
not to mention the difficulty of dragging to any of those often-obscured
icons on the desktop.

i note that historically, the well-to-do paid others to drag and drop things on their behalf.
they themselves could simply point and click (well, snap their fingers).

on the software side, my experience with Windows is that it is hard to
determine the rules of drag-and-drop interaction: when i still bothered to
try it i'd often have to drag things experimentally into applications just to see
whether they'd accept them and if so what they'd do with them.
i tend to use the right button Send To menu, if anything.

i therefore wonder whether dragging & dropping is not just a similar trick to
applications like Word, where the user ends up specifying in detail much of the formatting that
could easily be done (more effectively) by computer.

>>No, it's much better.  Check out Acme.

Acme isn't necessarily the answer to what Rome wants to do (or wants
to allow his users to do), but Acme at least suggests that user
interfaces can be given a different feel, not just a different look
(which is what people typically end up discussing when they say `look
and feel').