Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 11:48:54AM -0500, Leo Famulari wrote: > On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 11:33:24AM +0100, Mathieu Lirzin wrote: > > Hi, > > > > Leo Famulariwrites: > > > > > I think we should remove xmonad from the lightweight-desktop OS > > > declaration example. Xmonad is not "lightweight" in terms of disk space > > > or bandwidth, since it requires GHC, which is 859 MiB uncompressed. > > > > Makes sense. > > > > > Also, the i3 window manager is not very useful without dmenu and > > > i3status, so I think we should add them. > > > > Agreed. > > Okay, I'll wait another day or so for more comments. I split it into two commits and pushed the master branch up to 0d7feebb622b0cf54ab435f308df347008d945b3. > > > While we are on this lightweight template, what would you think of > > replacing ratpoison with something less "exotic" like openbox? :) > > This is really a separate discussion! :)
Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
John Darringtonwrites: > On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 04:48:55PM +0100, Mathieu Lirzin wrote: > > Sure it is! > > What I meant is that Ratpoison is not the most "intuitive" WM for non > GNU Emacs/Screen users. As a consequence adding it in an example > configuration which is likely to be copy and paste, is maybe not the > most welcoming thing. :) > > IMHO Openbox or anything which is able to launch a program by "clicking" > seems more friendly as a default (modulo the accessibility issues which > to my knowledge are not addressed by any of the "lightweight" WMs). > ... > So most of them found "clicking" extremely unfriendly. Please be very > carefull when making generalisations like "GUIs are intuitive" "mice are > friendly" etc. As we said before - it depends uponn the user. I don't think I have made this generalisation. :) I haven't said that "clicking is more friendly". I have precisely said "'clicking' seems more friendly as a default". "defaults" are not adapted to everybody, especially in the case of people who are computer illiterates. -- Mathieu Lirzin GPG: F2A3 8D7E EB2B 6640 5761 070D 0ADE E100 9460 4D37
Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 11:33:24AM +0100, Mathieu Lirzin wrote: > Hi, > > Leo Famulariwrites: > > > I think we should remove xmonad from the lightweight-desktop OS > > declaration example. Xmonad is not "lightweight" in terms of disk space > > or bandwidth, since it requires GHC, which is 859 MiB uncompressed. > > Makes sense. > > > Also, the i3 window manager is not very useful without dmenu and > > i3status, so I think we should add them. > > Agreed. Okay, I'll wait another day or so for more comments. > While we are on this lightweight template, what would you think of > replacing ratpoison with something less "exotic" like openbox? :) This is really a separate discussion! :)
Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 04:48:55PM +0100, Mathieu Lirzin wrote: Sure it is! What I meant is that Ratpoison is not the most "intuitive" WM for non GNU Emacs/Screen users. As a consequence adding it in an example configuration which is likely to be copy and paste, is maybe not the most welcoming thing. :) IMHO Openbox or anything which is able to launch a program by "clicking" seems more friendly as a default (modulo the accessibility issues which to my knowledge are not addressed by any of the "lightweight" WMs). I don't want to take sides in this debate.At the same time I think "clicking is more friendly" is a fallacy. It's more friendly to people who are used to it, but decidedly frightening to those who are not. Some years ago, I was volunteering at an organisation which taught basic computer use to the computer illiterate. A lot of the students I taught were: Elderly, female and had arthritis in the fingers (but all that I dealt with were of sound mind). Many of them had, in their younger years been employed as typists, so a keyboard was nothing new to them and were quite happy with it. The mouse on the other hand was a challenge: 1. I would start by standing over the student's shoulder and give them an exercise to alternately push the mouse away from their body and pull it back towards them, whilst observing the curser ascending and descending the screen. (Don't tell them to "move the mouse up"! If you say that half of the students, will lift the mouse from the surface of the desk!) 2. The second exercise would be an extension of this idea. I would instruct them now to move the mouse to the left, and observe the mouse cursor also move to the left. Almost invariably the student would first rotate the mouse 90 degrees to the left and THEN push the mouse in that direction. This instinct is very common with the ladies - It's unintuitive to them to have an object moving in a direction other than the way it is facing. (Have you ever noticed how men hold maps with North at the top, whereas women turn the map to that the top is in the direction of travel?) 3. The next exercise would be to get them to click on a button. Here the arthritis was sometimes an obstacle even if I had set the mouse sensitivity very low - but normally with a bit of effort the student could place the cursor over the target screen area. So I would instruct them to press the mouse button. This was a often big problem. The wrist would shake so much that when the click came the cursor had moved from the target. So most of them found "clicking" extremely unfriendly. Please be very carefull when making generalisations like "GUIs are intuitive" "mice are friendly" etc. As we said before - it depends uponn the user. J' -- Avoid eavesdropping. Send strong encrypted email. PGP Public key ID: 1024D/2DE827B3 fingerprint = 8797 A26D 0854 2EAB 0285 A290 8A67 719C 2DE8 27B3 See http://sks-keyservers.net or any PGP keyserver for public key. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
Hello Clément, Clément Lassieurwrites: > Mathieu Lirzin writes: > >> While we are on this lightweight template, what would you think of >> replacing ratpoison with something less "exotic" like openbox? :) > > What do you mean by "exotic"? Isn't that subjective? :) Sure it is! What I meant is that Ratpoison is not the most "intuitive" WM for non GNU Emacs/Screen users. As a consequence adding it in an example configuration which is likely to be copy and paste, is maybe not the most welcoming thing. :) IMHO Openbox or anything which is able to launch a program by "clicking" seems more friendly as a default (modulo the accessibility issues which to my knowledge are not addressed by any of the "lightweight" WMs). > Here are the results of "guix size": > - ratpoison: 172.6 MiB, > - i3-wm: 263.4 MiB, > - openbox: 322.9 MiB. > > So Openbox is almost twice as big as Ratpoison, which I think matters > for a "lightweight" template. Furthermore, Ratpoison quite is > convenient to use for those of us who use GNU Emacs and GNU Screen. As a former dedicated user of Ratpoison, I know and appreciate all its niceness. -- Mathieu Lirzin GPG: F2A3 8D7E EB2B 6640 5761 070D 0ADE E100 9460 4D37
Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
Mathieu Lirzinwrites: > While we are on this lightweight template, what would you think of > replacing ratpoison with something less "exotic" like openbox? :) What do you mean by "exotic"? Isn't that subjective? :) Here are the results of "guix size": - ratpoison: 172.6 MiB, - i3-wm: 263.4 MiB, - openbox: 322.9 MiB. So Openbox is almost twice as big as Ratpoison, which I think matters for a "lightweight" template. Furthermore, Ratpoison quite is convenient to use for those of us who use GNU Emacs and GNU Screen.
Re: [PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
Hi, Leo Famulariwrites: > I think we should remove xmonad from the lightweight-desktop OS > declaration example. Xmonad is not "lightweight" in terms of disk space > or bandwidth, since it requires GHC, which is 859 MiB uncompressed. Makes sense. > Also, the i3 window manager is not very useful without dmenu and > i3status, so I think we should add them. Agreed. While we are on this lightweight template, what would you think of replacing ratpoison with something less "exotic" like openbox? :) > Leo Famulari (1): > gnu: lightweight-desktop.tmpl: Remove xmonad and complete i3-wm. > > gnu/system/examples/lightweight-desktop.tmpl | 4 ++-- > 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) -- Mathieu Lirzin GPG: F2A3 8D7E EB2B 6640 5761 070D 0ADE E100 9460 4D37
[PATCH 0/1] improvements to the lightweight desktop example
I think we should remove xmonad from the lightweight-desktop OS declaration example. Xmonad is not "lightweight" in terms of disk space or bandwidth, since it requires GHC, which is 859 MiB uncompressed. Also, the i3 window manager is not very useful without dmenu and i3status, so I think we should add them. Leo Famulari (1): gnu: lightweight-desktop.tmpl: Remove xmonad and complete i3-wm. gnu/system/examples/lightweight-desktop.tmpl | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) -- 2.11.1