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Columba Developers Interview
Anonymous Coward writes "Scott Delap's ClientJava.com has an interview with the developers behind Columba, an open source Java email client. They answer questions about Columba development and general Java/Swing issues desktop Java applications face nowadays."
I was really referring to the implication that there are things that a user might wish to change that require editing an xml file to accomplish and acting as if that fact was a feature. It's possible, if not likely, that editing those files and making a simple typo could leave one with an unusable installation. Someone Truly Serious about UI Guidelines generally makes their app fit in with the platform. Firefox is an example of having at least some menu items where one expects them on the platform one is using. For example, on Windoze, preferences are under Tools->Options... while, IIRC (I'm at work on my windoze box but use Fedora at home), they're under Edit->Preferences... under Linux.
A better approach might have been, "Users currently have the ability to configure what we think are the most important things via the form under Preferences. Those who feel confident can configure just about anything by editing the xml configuration files directly but we're working on finishing the preferences forms so that nobody has to do this." Or something to that effect.
Don't get me wrong: the potential of creating a Truly Platform Independant (TM) application (at least on platforms that have a JVM) is immense, and I feel like the editors were right to post this story.
Mark