Floyd L. Davidson
Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com>wrote:

Eric Stevens
You have probably already done it but using configuration windows and menus etc. Lloyd uses a script.

Savageduck
So? That is what he needs to do because he is using Linux, with OSX, LR, & PS, I don't need to do that, but I could if I needed to. ...but why go to the effort?

Floyd L. Davidson
You can't. Or you would! At least if you try to generate an effective efficient production workflow!

There are some extremely harsh limitations on using icons for an interface to anything that is complex. And you are bound by that, but I'm not. Your desktop interface was derived from systems that were single user single tasking. Each program went into a single directory. The icon that brings up an editor will always have the same working directory.

That is too restrictive. I use a system derived initially from a multi-user/multi-tasking environment. Instead of each program being in one directory along with all of it's data, I put each *project* into a unique directory. Any program can be invoked from that directory, by any user, and will then have that as it's working directory. I don't mix data, or configuration files for various projects into the same working directory.

With the iconified desktop you either mix the data files into the same directories, or each time you use a different program launched from an icon you will have to manually reconfigure it. That makes chaining the work of multiple programs together unweldy, and causes programs to retain a do everything style that was necessary when the "OS" was just a program loader. (And that is the root cause of most of the security problems with Windows.)

Icon base desktops are a very inefficient interface for a competent users, but have a relatively shallow learning curve for the new or intermittent user.

The desktop interface that I use has a very steep learning curve, but it is exceptionally suited to an every day all day computer user that needs effective and efficient tools and will want to combine many tools in different groupings over different projects.