LiveCode Forums.

I am developing on a Mac, and deploying to Windows. Mostly this works just fine; a tribute to the LC team.

But the "look and feel" of the Windows standalone, though all functionality is sound, is just so different; the rendering of pulldown menus, the appearance of buttons and fields. Now I know that much of the drawing of these controls is managed by the underLying OS, but is there any way to make them more similar?

Everyone knows the order of options in the "answer" dialog is reversed between Mac and Windows, but this is manageable under script control. That is not what I am talking about.

What I really mean is that the Mac IDE stack is gorgeous. And I am not biased at all. The Windows standalone looks stupid. Awful. Did I mention I was not biased?

It may not be possible, the miracle of "develop once, deploy everywhere" notwithstanding, but has anyone else tried to address this?

Craig Newman

Any pics of what you are describing in particular, for comparison?

I don't think your biased, I think most of the Windows UI took a dump after say, 7, but even before that I switched off it to an OS I control the look of.

Bogs is such a straight shooter.

I am so, so biased.

Craig

I wrote a similar question to Bruce Tognazzini a few years ago.

He advised me to focus instead on consistency of my app designs with the conventions of the host OS.

He has strong feelings about macOS, of course, having designed so much of its core paradigms. He feels it offers many advantages, often measurable.

But he also feels that the power of consistency for aiding usability trumps other concerns.

So his advice to me was to study the Win HIG, and spend as much time as practical with the OS to get a fluid sense of it, as I've gained with macOs after so many years.

When a Mac user encounters an app clearly designed for Windows and ported without respect for Mac conventions, it's a turn-off.

And the same is true with Windows users who encounter ported apps made with similar disregard for local customs.

With eight times more users than macOS, the effort to win the hearts and minds of that vast audience is well rewarded.

LiveCode makes it easy to make both audiences happy, with a single code base and minimal forking. Going with the grain of the engine's multiplatform design keeps development costs down and increases user engagement.

Viva le différence.

It's important not to make Windows standalones look ugly.

Otherwise people would go out and buy real computers.






<ducking>

mwieder wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 25, 2018 1:56 am

It's important not to make Windows standalones look ugly.

Otherwise people would go out and buy real computers.






<ducking>

One of the advantages of being old: after NeXT everything looks ugly.