D GUI Framework (responsive grid teaser)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

On Thursday, 23 May 2019 at 01:22:20 UTC, Manu wrote:
> That's a different discussion. I don't actually endorse this. 
> I'm a fan of instantaneous response from my productivity 
> software... 'Instantaneous' being key, and running without 
> delay means NOT waiting many cycles of the event pump to flow 
> typical modern event-driven code through some complex latent 
> machine to finally produce an output.

Yes, you are of course right if the effort is spent where it 
matters. In my mind CygnusED (CED) on the Amiga is STILL the 
smoothest editor I have ever used and it was because it used 
smooth hardware assisted scrolling (Copper lists) so my eyes 
could regain focus very fast. I guess also the phosphor on the 
screen helped, because other editors that try to spin down a 
scroll gradually does not feel as good as CED did. *shrugs*

One could certainly come up with a better UI experience by 
combining a good understanding of visual perception with low 
level optimization and good use of hardware.

But that sounds like different project to me. One would then have 
to start with a good theoretical understanding of human 
perception, how the brain works and so on. Then see if you can 
pick up ideas from interactive software like games.

That would however lead to a new concept for user-interface 
design. Which would be interesting, for sure, but requires much 
more than coding up a UI framework.


> You should use as little memory as possible. I have no idea how 
> a webpage eats as much memory as it does... that's a perfect 
> example of the sort of terrible software engineering I'm 
> against!

In chrome each page runs in a separate process for security 
reasons, that's how. AFAIK.

Also, service workers are very useful, but it is probably 
tempting to let them grow large to get better responsiveness 
(from the network layer). Basically a proxy replicating the web 
server within the browser, so that you can use the website as an 
offline app.


> You're placing your resentment in the wrong place.
> My 8mhz Amiga 500 ran 60hz gui's without breaking a sweat...

But people also used the hardware almost directly though, you 
could install copper-lists even when using the OS with UI (in 
full screen mode).

In my mind the copper-list concept was alway more impact-full 
than the blitter. I'm not sure where they got the idea to expose 
it to ordinary applications, but it had a very real impact on the 
end user experience and what applications could do (e.g. drawing 
programs).