'Heap' to throw innovative ideas.

Some of the best innovations are in mundane mechanics of common ui.

menus, min/max, icons, sys menu, moving, sizing, scrolling, scroll bars,
help, dialogs, buttons, default buttons, check boxes, radio buttons,
edit controls, list boxes, static, controls.

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- bitmap buttons in general (auto-frame-switch, optional borders)
- animated buttons / statics
- animated bitmaps (all new & delta new)
- general animation objects. Can be described in dialog templates
- bitmap windows, misc support, including simple drawing in memory before
  bitblt to screen (dialogs). Memory drawing is way faster sometimes.
- Fade in selection for bitmap windows (l to r, r to l, fade in, piece in,
  box in, circle in, etc.)
- better dialog coordinates for dialog item positioning


#########################

feature list
------------

menus
    owner draw, track
    good tear-off support
    good popup-up support
    palettes
    directional formatting options

wmgr
    cheap 'see through' windows (maybe use general regional stuff)
    'virtual desktops' - each with own resolution
    window dragging / outline dragging

misc
    individual sys metrics - apps with different colors, etc. Control panel.
    animated bitmaps (timeable event object) - simple to implement    


competition
    SCO OpenDesktop
    ATT/SUN OpenLook (sparc)
    Mac II    




####################################################### 824
From darrinm Fri Sep  7 12:58:43 1990
To: scottlu
Subject: THINK
Date: Fri Sep 07 12:57:06 1990


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Cc: 
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Record-folder: c:\darrinm\record.fld
Subject: THINK


Workstation-quality UI
- NeXT
- Motif
- OpenLook
- total application independence
- support double-buffered rendering of controls, client windows
- deal intelligently with big (1280x1024+) screens (e.g. change meaning of
  top-level window maximization)
- handwriting input devices
- real-time window dragging
- 'textured' interface (watery backdrop, wood frame controls, mottled steel
  buttons, marbled jade menus, etc)
- regional shaped windows
- tear-off menus

Multimedia
- real-time synchronization requirements (SMPTE, VBL, audio playback, etc)
- weird video devices (multiple display screens/modes/planes, etc)
- new input devices (audio, joystick, etc)
- multiple desktops/rooms

Mega-graphics
- everything an IRIS does
- high-speed animation
- special graphics hardware (poly-filling engines, display-list processors,
  alpha/z-buffers, etc)
- real-time compressed video playback
- 24-bit color + true color reproduction
- frame-grabbing/digitizing (probably covered by high-speed animation)
- deal intelligently with big (1280x1024+) screens

Audio
- DSP
- MIDI
- input


Random features
- windows that are always on top or underneath all other windows (e.g. clock,
  backdrops, etc)
- standard animation format used for 'animacons/animicons' (animated icons) and
  animated pointers.  
