Complex things possible

Posted on 2006-05-09 by Graham Lee

I was once told by a local Human-Computer Interface luminary (who claims to have in-depth knowledge of the way NeXTStep’s UI works) that it’s not possible in any existing GUI to have lines connecting separate windows.
Allow me to introduce a decade-old piece of scotch mist.

This entry was posted in whatevs. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Complex things possible

  1. Anonymous says:
    2006-05-09 at 14:16

    Isn’t that done using multiple thin windows?

    Also hasn’t Apple patented this?

  2. Graham Lee says:
    2006-05-09 at 14:20

    Chris:

    well yes, in that everything on the Quartz display is a window (similar to the way everything on the X display is a window), the line between the two (Aqua) windows on this screencap is indeed a set of (Quartz) windows. On NeXTSTEP, it was a lump of postscript drawn over the top of everything else’s output.

    And yes, Apple own a patent on it but in fact it’s part of NeXT’s patent portfolio, so Apple didn’t patent it </pedant>. I mentioned to said luminary that this was why the technique was seen in NeXT/Apple apps and not in anyone else’s (look at GORM, for instance); but he reiterated that it isn’t possible to do this on NeXT or any other platform.

  3. Anonymous says:
    2006-05-09 at 14:23

    He’s clearly a complete luminary!

  4. Graham Lee says:
    2006-05-10 at 17:39

    as luminary as a hatstand.

  5. Anonymous says:
    2006-05-29 at 15:46

    17 years, actually.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.