Re: Third-party wish list

David R. Jungemann (djung@FOOTHILL.NET)
Fri, 10 May 1996 09:44:33 -0700

Jon Frisby wrote:
> Stripping out functionality wont help one bit. All of the features
> you mentioned are provided by GEOS... They are all system level
> functions (including line endpoints and gradient fills... <G>)Jon:
Ah! You sound like a GEOS programmer. Cool! I'm not, at least not yet. But I am a
programmer per se and it seems to me that you're both write and wrong. Sure, if you
strip out something like a gradient fill, you won't lose the code that actually does the
gradient fill, because GEOS is still going to be there.

What you will lose is the code required to make the system call, the menu item code
required to signal that user wants to make the system call, etc. etc. It doesn't seem
like much, until you look at the whole menu structure that Nathan built in OG DRAW.
The program is immense, from PDA standards, a carefully-crafted gem with incredible
functionality! Tons of linked menus.

If you eliminate gradient fills, there are menus beyond that menu that can also be
eliminated.

I'm not actually suggesting that this SHOULD be done. I like OG Draw just as it is.
But there is a place in the market for something LIKE OG Draw but smaller and with
lesser functionality as a trade-off. Something on the order of (dating myself a little
here) the first MacDraft. Lines (keep the arrows!), rectangles, squares, some text and
alignment tools: that's pretty much it.

Anyhow, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you gotta specify those menu
structures somewhere and if you drop the features the menus support, isn't that gonna
save space? Or is your point that the space saved is just a drop in the bucket?
I sure wouldn't put it past GEOS to have a tight menu structure!
--Dave Jungemann