Haxial versus Apple/Mac User Interface The Apple user interface guidelines ... Haxial does NOT care about and is NOT interested in following any Apple user interface guidelines. Haxial products conform to their own user interface guidelines. Some Mac fanatics think that Apple design is brilliant. In the opinion of those at Haxial, Apple user interface design is good in some areas and bad in other areas. (Yes yes MS Windows has bad design too, we know.) If you have a suggestion about how Haxial's user interface can be improved, then by all means we will listen and consider it, but if the only reason you are telling us is because you read it in Apple user interface guidelines, then we are not interested. We really do not care if Haxial products break every rule in Apple guidelines. Haxial is concerned about making products that are good in the opinion of those at Haxial, not Apple! Who is the developer of Haxial products -- Haxial or Apple? Therefore Haxial's design decisions will be decided by Haxial not Apple. You should change your user interface to conform to the Mac interface You can make the user interface more Mac-like by using a Haxial Appearance file that is more Mac-like, and in some cases by configuring the various options in the Settings window of the program. Other than that, Haxial is not interested in making programs which conform to the Mac user interface because: Despite what some Mac fanatics think, Apple user interface design is NOT brilliant. Unsurprisingly, it is good in some areas, and bad in other areas, and the same can be said of other operating systems. It does not make sense to verbatim copy a design which is only partially good. We are unique individuals. We are NOT obligated to think the same way as Apple people do. We have a right to have our own opinions about what makes a good program, even if they are contrary to what Mac fanatics think, and we choose to exercise that right, thus allowing us to think freely and innovate. We insist on our right to decide for ourselves what makes a good user interface -- there is no reason why Apple should replace our brains or dictate design. If Haxial is limited to the Mac interface, then Haxial cannot make a better interface. Whereas if Haxial is free to cherry-pick the best interface ideas and create new interface designs without restriction, then there is the potential to make a superior interface. Haxial was founded with a principle of making its products run on multiple operating systems. It is too difficult / too much work to write each product specially and differently for each operating system in order to conform to the arbitrary conventions of each system. Haxial programs having their own user interface makes it possible to achieve the goal of cross-platform portability without incurring exorbitant/impractical development costs and time. The programming code for the user interface in MacOS and MS Windows is unnecessarily complex and poorly designed, and thus if Haxial used it, it would compromise Haxial's ability to write small, fast, efficient, and reliable programs. Another Haxial principle is that users should be able to choose and customize the appearance of Haxial programs, and that users should not be forced into one appearance. This is because people have widely varying tastes, and what is delicious to one person is disgusting to another person, and what is beautiful to one person is hideous to another person. Thus the appearance is already highly customizable. Haxial is NOT interested in catering to those who care more about looks than whether the program actually does useful things. Some people are ridiculously obsessed about superficial matters. Haxial really does welcome genuine suggestions on how to improve the user interface of its products. However, Haxial does NOT welcome preaching by Mac zealots. And suggesting that Haxial products conform to Mac is NOT a suggestion about how to improve the user interface, it is only a suggestion about how to conform, not how to make something better. We stress that we are only interested in attempting to make the best user interface and we are NOT interested in limiting ourselves by conforming to other user interfaces. Having conforming and consistent user interfaces is easier for the user Not if the consistent user interface is a badly designed one that hampers the user and has poor usability. For example, making all cars have the same body shape and color is consistent, but it is a very bad idea because you would lose your car in the shopping center carpark. In any event, Haxial is NOT seeking to prevent you from conforming to the interface of your choice. If there is a certain appearance that you would like to use, by all means, go ahead and use it. Haxial provides a large selection of Appearance files and even an Appearance Editor so you can make Haxial programs look however the hell you want them to look. Haxial programs also provide options in their Settings windows to modify the behavior of the program, and Haxial is open to suggestions for more behavior-modifying options, so you can configure the Haxial program to behave in the way that you wish it to behave. Nobody will buy your products unless you make your user interface conform to Mac That is only wishful thinking on your part. It is only a fanatical vocal minority that screams bloody murder when Haxial does something non-Mac. Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated into the Mac hive-mind. No, we will not. We are Species 8472. You Mac fanatics should be herded together, packed into a capsule, and shot far into deep space, where you can terrorize some aliens with your incessant chantings! You are like a broken record, Apple this, Apple that, Apple is the greatest, the sun shines out of Apple's ass, why doesn't everyone love Apple? Holy great winged buckets of crap, get a grip on yourself! SCREW the Apple user interface!! The above paragraph is the sort of obnoxious response you will get if you persist in trying to bully Haxial into conforming to Mac. Attempts to make Haxial blindly conform to Mac design are futile. If you Mac zealots had your way, everyone in the world would think and talk the same way, a way dictated by Apple, and anyone who had the audacity to think differently to the Apple Cult (how DARE they!) would be persecuted and exiled. Holy crap, be a little more open-minded! Haxial's position on this matter is final and immutable: We appreciate and welcome suggestions about how the user interface can be improved. However, if you are preaching the Mac Gospels, you will just get the door slammed in your face like a Mormon. It is not fair to say that all Mac users are crazy fanatics Agreed. It is only a vocal minority that are crazy fanatics. Most Mac users are fine. The fanatics make themselves seem more numerous than they really are because apparently they have nothing better to do with their time than posting complaints about all things non-Mac in as many places as possible, and heckling developers until they relent. Actually you should make it conform to whatever OS it is running on MS Windows users do not seem to care about this issue. Actually, they usually seem to enjoy the ability to change the appearance using Haxial Appearance files. Haxial does not receive any demands from MS Windows users that Haxial make its products conform to their OS. In any event, even if you do want Haxial products to conform to MS Windows, you can simply download either the Windows Classic or Windows XP Appearance files from the Haxial website, and voilà, problem solved. So it is nice of you to take into account the concerns of MS Windows users, but it is not a problem for them. As for Unix, it does not have a standard user interface to conform to. For example, here is a quote about the X Windows system used in Unix: "X is somewhat unusual in that it does not mandate a particular type of window manager. Its developers have tried to make X itself free of window management or user interface policy as possible. And, while the X11 distribution includes twm as a sample window manager, individual manufacturers are expected to write their own window managers and user interface guidelines." ("Xlib Programming Manual", by Adrian Nye, Section 1.2.3 "Window Management", page 7.) And if you think Haxial should produce a different version of its products for every flavor and distribution of Unix or Linux, in order to conform to each flavor, then you are really off your rocker. You ask more of Haxial than other Unix developers. Other Unix developers do not produce specially customized versions of their product conforming to the user interface of each flavor of Unix because to do so would be impractical and unnecessary. In any event, like MS Windows, you can use Haxial appearance files to make the appearance match your system. Complaints about conformity are almost entirely limited to Mac users, and then mostly only to the vocal minority of fanatics. How about adding some more interface options? Sure, feel free to send us suggestions for user interface options. There is no such thing as one perfect interface that is best for everyone because everyone is different. "One size fits all" is more of an Apple strategy, it is certainly not a Haxial strategy. This is why Haxial programs allow their appearance to be customized to a great extent. Options are good -- they allow more people to be satisfied. However you will need to be more specific and less generalized than asking for a single master-switch option to make it conform to Mac. Whereas if you identify specific details about the user interface that you would like the option to change, this can be done and Haxial is open to such suggestions for options. It is not only the appearance of the user interface that I hate, it is the behavior So send Haxial a suggestion about how to improve it, and we will seriously consider it. Haxial has always welcomed suggestions. Please try to be specific and identify precisely what details you want an option to change. Broad sweeping generalizations such as "The whole UI just sucks" cannot be taken seriously.