[HN Gopher] Ede - An Fltk based desktop environment (2014)
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       Ede - An Fltk based desktop environment (2014)
        
       Author : RalfWausE
       Score  : 87 points
       Date   : 2024-02-03 07:47 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (edeproject.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (edeproject.org)
        
       | marttt wrote:
       | This is really nice, thanks for sharing. Looking back, the
       | obvious inspiration here, Classic Windows, was a remarkably good
       | user interface. (Or, many people simply have a soft spot for it,
       | because we used it for a very long time.)
       | 
       | I imagine Ede would play perfectly with Tiny Core Linux [1] which
       | has FLTK/FLWM as its default desktop system.
       | 
       | 1: http://www.tinycorelinux.net/
        
         | timeon wrote:
         | > obvious inspiration here, Classic Windows
         | 
         | Which was inspired by NextStep.
        
           | marttt wrote:
           | Thanks for the addition, apparently I'm too young to know
           | this. Indeed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTSTEP#/media/F
           | ile:NeXTSTEP_...
        
           | LeFantome wrote:
           | Windows is quite an explicit lift of the interface design
           | guidelines specified by IBM as Common User Access ( CUA ).
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access
           | 
           | CUA predates NeXT by quite a lot and so the influence would
           | mostly be going the other way.
           | 
           | CUA was the design paradigm chosen for OS/2, a joint project
           | between IBM and Microsoft. When Microsoft started the Windows
           | Project ( after OS/2 ) they pretty explicitly adopted CUA for
           | it as well.
        
         | asystole wrote:
         | If you like this style of UI, check out serenityOS
         | (https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity).
        
           | drivingmenuts wrote:
           | They all look the same to me. Perhaps the devil is in the
           | details, but visually, they all look like Windows, except the
           | ones that look like MacOS.
           | 
           | The only system that doesn't look like either, that I can
           | think of, is Plan 9.
        
             | asystole wrote:
             | Plan9 is certainly unique and opinionated.
             | Nextstep/Openstep/WindowMaker and RiscOS are two others
             | that come to mind.
        
       | rglullis wrote:
       | > built to have a familiar look and feel.
       | 
       | Not familiar for anyone born after the 90's.
        
         | sspiff wrote:
         | Why so negative?
         | 
         | Last release was 2014. Project is still hosted on SourceForge.
         | Website copyright notice ends in 2018. Last commit to the
         | github repo was 2018. Project front page mentions the original
         | Xbox, Minix, and Zaurus (and early 2000s Japanese handheld
         | organizer that ran Linux) and Solaris as targets.
         | 
         | This should give you some idea of what time frame to view any
         | claims from the website in.
        
           | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
           | > Why so negative?
           | 
           | I don't see that as negative, but a remark that most younger
           | people are not used to the look of Windows up to (and
           | including) 2000. And the last time I personally used FLTK had
           | been around 2000 too. Which, btw, (at least back than) looked
           | more like Irix' 4DWM controls than Windows.
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | XP, Vista and 7 had a classic look mode. And from w2k's
             | classic look to Vista the interface it's almost identical.
             | Windows 8 and tablet UI's were disruptive.
        
         | throwaway13095 wrote:
         | Even my sister and brother, born in 2003 and 2009, have used
         | computers with this UI style.
        
           | noduerme wrote:
           | Just wait. Ten years from now kids will be like, "wait, you
           | can't wear it on your face?? What's a mouse? Why won't this
           | computer just do what I'm thinking? Mom!!!"
        
             | rglullis wrote:
             | Last year I had a "oh, shit, I'm old" moment when I was
             | talking with a 20-something year old who didn't know what a
             | dial tone was. She never used a landline phone.
        
             | timeon wrote:
             | > you can't wear it on your face?
             | 
             | VR feels more in tune with retro-futurism.
        
             | bitwize wrote:
             | "That's like a baby's toy!"
             | 
             | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KMy1zO8m8sM
        
           | rglullis wrote:
           | Your siblings are probably outnumbered 1000:1.
        
             | asystole wrote:
             | source: just trust me bro
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | Well, WIndows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and maybe Gnome 2
         | fit on that UI.
        
           | rglullis wrote:
           | I wouldn't put anything after Windows 2000 on the same
           | category as this. And how many people got to be introduced to
           | computers in their teen years via Gnome 2?
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | Most widgets are the same under a different style, such as
             | the UI from Be and today's Haiku. Even KDE3. Smartphones
             | and tablets are a different beast altogether.
        
           | marttt wrote:
           | React OS probably also has the Classic Windows look
           | available. They seem to have switched their main screenshots
           | to something resembling Windows 10, though:
           | https://reactos.org/gallery/
        
         | bowsamic wrote:
         | I doubt people born after the 90s are the target audience
        
         | mhd wrote:
         | To be fair, if you're young enough, nothing is familiar
         | anymore, because that's no longer a goal for UIs.
        
         | ZoomZoomZoom wrote:
         | It would be so nice to read how that ancient Windows interface
         | looks just like Serenity OS some day!
        
       | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
       | Regarding FLTK: was originally done by Bill Spitzak (who
       | obviously has used IRIX/4DWM), now famous for Nuke
       | https://www.atogt.com/askoscar/display-person.php?id=74125&v...
       | 
       | https://spitzak.github.io/
        
         | mhd wrote:
         | And it was based or at least inspired on the previous XForms[1]
         | toolkit - the one with way too many bevel shapes for buttons
         | etc., not the XML thing. Probably at least partially done
         | because XForms wasn't open source, and to provide a more
         | "modern" C++ API.
         | 
         | Meanwhile, XForms has been open-sourced, but FLTK being in a
         | different language and having evolved a bit since its creation
         | didn't suffer from the problems Lesstif had and is standing on
         | its own rather well. And despite being C++, it pops up rather
         | often when you're looking for GUIs with decent language
         | bindings (e.g. for Lua or Rust). Probably because it's less a
         | moving target than Qt or, heck, Gtk.
         | 
         | 1: http://xforms-toolkit.org
        
           | hawski wrote:
           | Related: Xfce originally stood for "XForms Common
           | Environment".
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | Yep, later used GTK and then it was totally libre. Also, up
             | to the 4.2? releases XFCE with XFFM was uber fast.
        
           | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
           | See https://www.fltk.org/doc-1.0/intro.html#2_1
        
         | rollcat wrote:
         | Rakarrack <https://rakarrack.sourceforge.net/> has a GUI
         | written in FLTK. It was my earliest adventure with guitar
         | effects and DSP (ca 2008); it ran on a potato laptop and still
         | kept up, which made the whole setup actually viable for
         | spontaneous jam sessions at other people's places.
         | 
         | Good times.
        
       | LeFantome wrote:
       | FLTK is still under active development and claims to be adding
       | Wayland support in the next release. Last release was December
       | 2023.
       | 
       | EDE itself though looks like a dead project. I would not expect
       | this to survive the jump to Wayland.
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-03 23:01 UTC)