BeOS Interface

BeOS インターフェース / 1995–2001 / Style / Platform Screen Languages

Be's interface language threw away the full width title bar and put a short yellow tab on the top edge of each window instead. The user's guide calls sliding that tab a unique feature of Be windows: hold Shift and the tab travels sideways, so stacked windows leave a row of visible tabs rather than burying one another.

BeOS Interface — Tullius, BeOS screen, 2005 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © The original uploader was Tullius at Norwegian Wikipedia .
Tullius, BeOS screen, 2005 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © The original uploader was Tullius at Norwegian Wikipedia .
BeOS Interface — Deavmi, Haiku Terminal settings window, 2017 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Deavmi, Haiku Terminal settings window, 2017 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0
BeOS Interface — Avodjag, Haiku Deskbar menu, 2013 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Avodjag, Haiku Deskbar menu, 2013 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Only the front window's tab is yellow; every other window keeps a gray tab
  • The tab is as wide as the window's name, not as wide as the window
  • Holding Shift and dragging the tab slides it along the top edge of the window
  • The Deskbar stands in the upper right corner with running applications stacked below it

Best used for

  • A workspace where many windows stay open at once and every window's label must survive being overlapped
  • Making an interface that reads as clearly not-the-others through a single decision rather than more color

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Dictionary entry

Type
A small sans, one line of it, living inside the tab; names get cut short rather than trailing into an ellipsis.
Composition
The tab occupies only as much of the top edge as the name needs, and because tabs slide, window positions are chosen so overlapping windows line their tabs up in a row.
Material
One light gray carries the whole surface; only the front window's tab is painted yellow and the rest stay gray, with no third color invited in.
Caution
Spreading the yellow around as a general accent destroys its one job, marking the front window, and the tab drops to decoration.
Further study
the section A Look at BeOS Windows in the BeOS User's Guide 4.5, describing the yellow tab and the sliding gesture / Stack and Tile as explained in the current Haiku user guide, binding tabs together and stacking windows / measuring the tab yellow and the ground grey off a real screen and putting a number on the contrast

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