In an illuminating response to Chris Bowers' hapless argument for the the "inevitability" of Howard Dean, Demosphia presents The Centrifugal Politics of "Little Democracy". Unlike the Bower's meditation on how wishes become horses, Demosophia does not demolish as much as instruct Bowers on the importance of being lucid rather than a Lotus Eater:
The flaw in [Bower's] reasoning is that it assumes Republicans did something deliberate to increase their vote and support base, when what actually happened is that the electorate was simply returning to the ideological consensus of the founding. It is precisely those founding principles that have worked successfully to produce the electoral resource available to the Republican Party. The reason for the shift of the public to the right, and the decline in the fortunes of Democrats is, I'm afraid, far more serious than any Republican strategy to increase the clout of their constituent groups. It is the failure of many Democrats to understand their own country. They have simply been led to regard the founding values as subversive, and so fewer and fewer voters are willing to entrust the care and maintenance of the nation to them. There may still be a wing of the Democratic Party that remains sensitive to these values, but it may be on the verge of becoming completely coopted by the Republicans.The sad thing here is that not only will nobody in the Democtratic party recognize this, they cannot recognize it. The sadder thing is not that nobody in the Democratic party will do anything about this, but that there is nothing they can do.
There's a lot of talk about the ultimate candidate "tacking back to the center" after obtaining the nomination and I do not doubt that will happen. But a political party is not a tiny little sailboat but more like a supertanker. Yes, you can change direction and even come to a complete halt, but it takes a good deal of time and foresight. And those two things are no longer resources held by the Democratic party.
Posted by Vanderleun at November 17, 2003 7:23 AM
Okay, I just told you what Apple wants you to look out for with window positions, but in the real world, not everyone uses the hiding feature of the Dock, and it is unrealistic to be able to predict where each user will place their Dock at any given day or how large they will have it. However, you can build a feature into your application that allows spacing for the Finder. You can give users the option of where to position their windows and what area of the screen not to cross. I know that BBEdit provides me with this feature, and I wish more developers gave me more control over my windows.
Posted by: Helen at January 12, 2004 4:23 PMAdhere to File Locations. Make sure that when your users save documents, your application knows where to put them and also gives users flexibility.
Posted by: Jesse at January 12, 2004 4:24 PMAdhere to System Appearance. Does your application use all the sweetly colored buttons, delightfully shaded windows, and all the other "bells and whistles?"
Posted by: Fulk at January 12, 2004 4:24 PMHelp! Did you include help tags in your applications? (I'd be lost without them.) Also, be sure to take extra time to develop your other help files. The Apple Help Viewer supports HTML, QuickTime, and also AppleScript. Take advantage of it! There isn't anything I hate more than going to the Help menu and finding there isn't any help.
Posted by: Wymond at January 12, 2004 4:25 PMAdhere to Layout Guidelines. Did you leave 12 pixels between your push buttons? Does the positioning of your pop-up menus make sense, and when do you use a pop-up versus a scrolling list? Are you using the right types of buttons for the proper functions?
Posted by: Hansse at January 12, 2004 4:25 PMWhether native or not, this is obviously one of the first steps on your way to OS X. Keep in mind that often, the functionality of your code has a lot to do with how your interface is designed. How many developers have come up with great functional ideas from working with their interface or looking at their competitors'? Start working on your Aqua compliance from day one. Don't wait until the last minute.
Posted by: Ottewell at January 12, 2004 4:26 PMAdopt Sheets. I really like the use of Sheets in OS X. The use of Sheets lets me know which window my dialogue belongs to without hijacking my system.
Posted by: Mark at January 12, 2004 4:26 PMSo far in these articles, I have only dipped a toe or two into Aqua's pool. I have covered basic aspects of building an Aqua-compliant application, including the building of photo-illustrative/3D application icons. Now it's time to address other components of our Mac OS X application.
Posted by: Hamond at January 12, 2004 4:26 PMAdhere to File Locations. Make sure that when your users save documents, your application knows where to put them and also gives users flexibility.
Posted by: Bennett at January 12, 2004 4:27 PMBut limit your animations to whatever is required to communicate the necessary information. Avoid annoying animations that discourage ease of use. Ask yourself, "What do I need to show the user, and what is the cleanest way possible to achieve that?" A good example is the Mail application for Mac OS X. Whenever a new message arrives, the Dock icon changes appearance to indicate a changed state.
Posted by: Bartholomew at January 12, 2004 4:27 PM
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