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Computers and Grahics

There’s something I want to talk about, it’s not something people think about often or at all. We kind of take it for grated these days, but honestly with out graphics, computers would not but as popular as they are today.

In the beginning of personal computers, much of the interface was done through CLI, or Command Line Interface, in where even on Windows, or Apple, the hobbyist computer users would generally be typing out commands to do the things they wanted. When the first graphical interface for a computer was created, we went APE SHIT over it. Less knowledgeable users could now start to point and click their way to do things, and slowly we began to see the evolution of computers grow. Jump to today, and you see people creating amazing graphical interfaces for Windows, Apple, and if you actually look, Linux, but we’ve slowly become desensitized to some of the simpler forms of interfaces such as the old BIOS screen where there was no mouse and you had to operate it with your keyboard. I’m also victim to this issue as well, but ever since I joined in a new Linux desktop environment project called MATE. I’ve come to be amazed with even the old CLI GUI as I call it.

I’m not a programer, I tend to just mess around with scripting once in a while. Yet I marvel at how basic a desktop interface can be when you boil the graphical components down: Title Bar with program name and font; Images or text for Close, Minimize, and Maximize; And and application menu and bar. And all the pretty icons or other pictures you see that go with the interface are simply image files that a program places inline with where they need to be. Even fonts these days are nothing more than images that a program can intemperate to place instead of the default font the computers used in the older days. And if you have the knowledge you can replace those and create your own interface.

And this popular way of doing things can get messy at times, and lately it seems many are forgetting what the desktop interface is and wanting interfaces that resemble those on their phones that an interface that lets them handle many things at once. Desktops are work machines, they are meant to be-able to do many things at once, but lately it seems we’ve lost touch with what is a desktop and what is a mobile platform. Ubuntu, GNOME 3, Windows 8, all of these have a similarity. Their default interface is best suited for a tablet, but they are marketed for desktops, this trend is slightly disturbing to me, but I’m thankful for the MATE Desktop Environment project because they have other like minded people of that a desktop interface should look like. We may have different styles, but the core look we all agree is the desktop look many of us grew up with. Working with them has also broadened me to how important graphics can be to a system, if they don’t look right, people won’t use it, if they look like shit, people won’t use it, if it feels wrong, guess what? People won’t use it.

I find it an amazing challenge to make something that most people would enjoy. Just the level of what to think of when making an icon set, you have to think about those who use both light and dark themed interfaces will need something different. Light themes will need darker icons and dark themes will need lighter ones. But when they work together, the result can be beautiful, but also can be an annoyance if you feel like something is off. But over all, much of the interfaces we use today use some kind of graphical element to them and if you cut out usage and take a look at only looks, then they are all rather amazing when you think of how we got to this point.

October 6, 2012 No Comments Rowen Short URL

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