RE: Free OS/400

John,

Joe will probably have different answers.  But here's my take: (>>)

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of jpcarr@tredegar.com
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 10:33 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Free OS/400




>1. CLP - Component Level Protocol - defines business-aware UI components
>2. ALP - Application Level Protocol - defines communication between a
client
>and a server
>3. ADL - Application Definition Language - defines a generic UI and
>application data flow (it builds on ALP and CLP)
>Joe Pluta



 I was wondering.     In the 70's and 80's  it took us a few years to come
up with the best interactive design paradigm.

We went from Action Object (Display screen with choices 1,2,3 to add,
change delete then pick what you wanted to work on(like customers)
to Object Action  ie the basis of the Sys/38 and AS/400  Work With screen.

Do we think that the best methodology has been thought up for the
GUI/Browser  Interface?

>> Not even close.



Pull down boxes are nice,  but they are a pain
if you have to do it repetitively for say 5 things( pull down select it
disappears,  pull down select it disappears,  pull down select it
disappears)   The Subfile Work With paradigm is completely missing from
anything designed from a Non-AS/400  developer.     The ability to do the
equivalent of putting an Action Option 2,  4, 5,5,5,4,2 on a series of
items in a list and then process them sequentially is completely foreign to
the GUI/Browser design Paradigm.

Is my thinking just wanting it to work like what I've done in the past or
is what I've done in the past a good/fast design paradigm from the user
perspective?

>> The past (good/fast design paradigm) sure has a lot to offer, but gets
overlooked in favor of the glitz.



I don't mind throwing out old design paradigms that no longer make sense,
but are we throwing out the baby with the bathwater in some cases?

>> Some are.  Maybe the vast majority are...  But not everyone falls for the
paradigm du jour.



I don't know?      We hear that the GUI is more user friendly for the
unfamiliar/new user,  but the character mode is faster and easier for
erudite users.     Is there some balance that hasn't been achieved or
conceived in terms of the new interface design paradigm?

>> Absolutely.  Joe, I, and hopefully others have expressed interest on
finding that balance, but it remains to be seen if it will actually come
together.  (Still early.)  You ask a real good question, which I think Joe
and I will have to kick around, in a little more detail.



Ten years from now are we going to look at the current Browser design and
say,   "Boy,   we didn't know what we were doing,   Look how hard it was to
use the things we put out there compared to now"

>> This is one thing about the future you can say, for certain.



What would the "NOW"  be then(in the future)

>> I don't think anyone has that kind of vision to say, with any certainty,
what even a couple years from now will look like.  But if I was to be wildly
optimistic, I'd say I believe you will see this develop, over time, at
www.i-a-i-c.org.



jt

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