Hi Sander,
Is there a setting somewhere that makes the process explorer behave like it did before? After I launch a process it stays open until I dismiss it or until I open a menu.
No it isn't. This is a behavior change due to the fact that process interfaces are now top-level windows, instead of workspace children as before. When you launch a process the top-level window does not change focus in the workspace, and hence the Process Explorer (or any other explorer window that might be open and docked) is not closed automatically.
To close an explorer just click anywhere on the workspace, open a menu, or press Escape. It's a matter of getting accustomed.
I've disabled the transparent window option.
You can disable transparency on a per-window basis. It is the new "see through" property of top-level windows. Click a process interface's icon on its title bar (left side on Windows and Linux; right side on Mac OS X) and select "See-through inactive". I personally have "see through" always disabled for DBE and sometimes for DynamicCrop. PI will remember your choice in subsequent executions.
... all that fancy GUI stuff really doesn't appeal to me.
These features are not just fancy stuff. They are there for both aesthetic reasons —which are very important IMO— and usability reasons. For example, resizing window animations provide a kind of feedback to the user that I personally find very comfortable, and the same happens with most fading animations and transitions. When you click an icon and it "explodes" you know it has worked for sure. All this stuff creates the kind of atmosphere that I want to achieve with PI's GUI; the atmosphere that must turn PI into something very special from the user's perspective, something very different from other applications. So you can only expect PI to become more and more insanely advanced in this regard —wait to see the OpenGL-based features that I have in mind
Certainly this is a matter of personal preferences, and it's fine that you don't like animations, transparencies and all the advanced GUI stuff. That's why there are preferences options to disable them!
I'd rather have PixInsight Projects for example
And be sure you'll have them. The "fancy stuff" and the "serious stuff" —I actually think both are equally serious though— are not incompatible. And as a developer I really need enjoying some of the fancy after the serious, or I'd become (even more) mad
