Little things in OS's i hate

arielb · December 11, 2006, 2:06am

cAse sEnsitvity
strange directory formats with weird names like c:, /usr and /etc
the tendency for desktops and ‘start’ menus to be cluttered with icons. looks nice at first then turns unusable
apps that try to do everything their way.
for example in Windows, every app needs its own spell checker. There’s a nice clipboard for MS Office but why not have it available for every app?
Why do i need 5 zillion media players? And why do they have to look so weird?
why do GUI’s try to look a little cool and polished, which is good, but then they throw in some really cutesy thing or gimmick that throws it all off?

myob · December 11, 2006, 9:33am

Every OS bar Windows is case sensitive, so you’re going to have to live with it, sorry. No way in hell is it going to be removed.

Weishaupt · December 11, 2006, 12:17pm

arielb wrote:

1) cAse sEnsitvity

strange directory formats with weird names like c, /usr and /etc

did you ever hear anything about the posix-standart ?

ebykm · December 11, 2006, 2:58pm

Weishaupt wrote:

arielb wrote:

cAse sEnsitvity

strange directory formats with weird names like c:, /usr and /etc

did you ever hear anything about the posix-standart ?

c: isn’t posix :lol:

another question why everyone want to use 30yr old UNIX/clone on their state of the art computers and refuse to buy last year’s technology based electronic item / automobile. :?: :roll:

Weishaupt · December 11, 2006, 5:03pm

ebykm wrote:

c isn't posix lol

right … oops

ebykm wrote:

another question why everyone want to use 30yr old UNIX/clone on their state of the art computers and refuse to buy last year's technology based electronic item / automobile. ? roll

i guess it’s a compatibility-thingy for programs like the gnu-utils or the
bash, which I’d really miss …

BASH FOR FULL JUSTICE!

arielb · December 11, 2006, 10:39pm

I’ve heard of posix. But how does it make computers easier for people to use?

I have finally found a good argument for case sensitivity, however.

I’ve heard it’s a bigger deal in German.

umccullough · December 11, 2006, 11:50pm

arielb wrote:

I've heard of posix. But how does it make computers easier for people to use?
I have finally found a good argument for case sensitivity, however.

en.wikipedia.org

Capitonym

A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized; the capitalization usually applies due to one form being a proper noun or eponym. It is a portmanteau of the word capital with the suffix -onym. A capitonym is a form of homograph and – when the two forms are pronounced differently – is also a form of heteronym. In situations where both words should be capitalized (such as the beginning of a sentence), there will be nothing to distinguish betwe Al...

I’ve heard it’s a bigger deal in German.

But still - many of those "lower case spellings" can be easily confused when used as the first word in an english sentence - due to the capitalization of that word. I believe that any decent search tool should be able to use a case-insensitive search option (maybe by default for today’s desktop OSes) - and creating 2 files with the same name and different case should be discouraged by the average non-power user shell (maybe a warning?)

arielb · December 12, 2006, 2:06am

well I suppose any good search would not only be case insensitive but also pick up on spelling errors

and there really isn’t much to be gained by making an 'easy" commandline to replace bash. those who never used bash probably will still use the gui and those who do will be turned off.

umccullough · December 12, 2006, 4:04am

I used the term "shell" loosely to represent whatever interface the user uses to work with their files - including "file explorers" and "file managers" - Tracker for instance.

arielb · December 12, 2006, 6:30am

now what really gets me is the cluttered desktop/“start” menu problem.
Here’s my idea-integrate with the bebits hierarchy. Folders would be set up: games, productivity, etc. If you download a game, it will automatically go to the games folder. Let the OS sort everything for me…it could probably be done with attributes.

The desktop also frequently turns into a dumping ground. I like the idea of including a tab bar. Something like this
http://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/tlp.asp
The idea would be for the OS to put the most frequently used apps in each category, and documents and put them in the tab bar. Again, the OS would know that a game should go in the games tab.

red_devel · December 23, 2006, 12:03am

Don’t forget, making something case-incensitive actually takes more effort. Every character is stored as byte-long ascii code, and capital and lowercase are of course represented by different numbers. To make a system case incensitive actually ADDS, not removes, complexity from a code standpoint.

Sure its easy enough to subtract the difference between the ascii value of upper and lower case characters. But you also have to check against lots of combinations. Take just a three letter word like red. If you are building a case insensitve system, the user could type

red
Red
rEd
reD
REd
rED
ReD
RED

and all of them are valid! Of course one stance is that its the programmers job to deal with this complexity so the user doesn’t have to. But as a programmer, I’d rather make the user responsible for remembering case and leave the code cleaner and bug free, at least at an OS level. If an application needs/wants case incensitivity, let them handle that in their own userland code.

muda · January 25, 2007, 9:32pm

[quote=arielb]Here’s my idea-integrate with the bebits hierarchy. Folders would be set up: games, productivity, etc. If you download a game, it will automatically go to the games folder. Let the OS sort everything for me…it could probably be done with attributes.
[/quote]
Cool. If a special HIG exists regarding the application categorisation the developers would fill in “category” attribute. When user downloads and unpacks the app it instantly appears in the correct menu folder. If the folder was a query instead. Use “contains” operator and the app can be made to appear in several menus. The app folder could be dragged to any location without breaking the menu.

Kossi · January 25, 2007, 11:33pm

Cool using querys in Deskbar (the menu thing where users start Programs out of) was one thing I was thinking about some time ago.

I think dead links after deleting a program should be history. They only confuse the user.

It actually should be possible. What I was wondering about is what it would cost. Switching to querys on Deskbar would open quite some more querys than usualy used at the moment. Would it slow the system down badly? What are the downsides?

I asked that on berndsworld.com but didn’t get an answer :-((

Actually we don’t need a flag that tells Tracker where to put a program. All we need is a flag that tells Deskbar which file is the important executable or should be listed.
The subdirectory in the Menu would be the subdirectory in /apps.

A klick on the name of the folder would take the user to the directory at /apps, so he can change things.

I would love to see that feature. Hope one can search below a special foloder in BeOS/Haiku.

Best regards,
Thomas