Comments on: 5 ways to radically change computers (for the better) http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/ on programming, usability, and design; by Patrick Dubroy Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:26:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Dubroy.com/blog - The innovative interface of the OLPC laptop http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7841 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:14:34 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7841 <p>[...] The OLPC user interface is called Sugar. I won’t give a comprehensive description; for the full run-down, see the Getting Started guide, or the Sugar page in the OLPC wiki. Instead, I’ll just cover my two favourite parts: the focus on activities rather than applications, and the journal, which replaces the hierarchical file system. Coincidentally, these two ideas both relate to points on my wishlist of 5 ways to radically change computers (for the better). [...]</p> […] The OLPC user interface is called Sugar. I won’t give a comprehensive description; for the full run-down, see the Getting Started guide, or the Sugar page in the OLPC wiki. Instead, I’ll just cover my two favourite parts: the focus on activities rather than applications, and the journal, which replaces the hierarchical file system. Coincidentally, these two ideas both relate to points on my wishlist of 5 ways to radically change computers (for the better). […]

]]> by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7675 Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:43:00 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7675 <p>e:</p> <p>You're right that closing GMail immediately after typing a sentence would (currently) be a bad idea, because it autosaves your draft every few seconds. But if #2 (Automatic Save) were implemented, this wouldn't be a concern -- if the letters show up on the screen, then they are saved. In <a href="http://jef.raskincenter.org/humane_interface/summary_of_thi.html" rel="nofollow">the words of Jef Raskin</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>A user should never have to explicitly save or store work. The system should treat all produced or acquired data as sacred and make sure that it does not get lost, without user intervention. </p> </blockquote> <p>Then the only concern would be that the user "pulls the plug" while typing the sentence, which I think is a pathological case that no one would expect to have any guarantees with.</p> <p>The kind of idea I had in mind was that you don't worry about closing applications, you just switch away from them. If they haven't been active in a certain amount of time, the OS might shut them down, but it shouldn't matter. Just like GMail -- if you have a GMail window open, there's no harm in closing it (except in the scenario I addressed above) because you can always open it again and be right back where you left it. Does that make sense? Do you see any problems with it?</p> <p>You're right that we'll always need to do some amount of janitorial work. But if the software can make a smart, easily-reversible decision about things, then it should. Keep in mind that it won't be long before the concept of "deleting" a song or a movie will not even be relevant, just like with email.</p> e:

You’re right that closing GMail immediately after typing a sentence would (currently) be a bad idea, because it autosaves your draft every few seconds. But if #2 (Automatic Save) were implemented, this wouldn’t be a concern — if the letters show up on the screen, then they are saved. In the words of Jef Raskin:

A user should never have to explicitly save or store work. The system should treat all produced or acquired data as
sacred and make sure that it does not get lost, without user intervention.

Then the only concern would be that the user “pulls the plug” while typing the sentence, which I think is a pathological case that no one would expect to have any guarantees with.

The kind of idea I had in mind was that you don’t worry about closing applications, you just switch away from them. If they haven’t been active in a certain amount of time, the OS might shut them down, but it shouldn’t matter. Just like GMail — if you have a GMail window open, there’s no harm in closing it (except in the scenario I addressed above) because you can always open it again and be right back where you left it. Does that make sense? Do you see any problems with it?

You’re right that we’ll always need to do some amount of janitorial work. But if the software can make a smart, easily-reversible decision about things, then it should. Keep in mind that it won’t be long before the concept of “deleting” a song or a movie will not even be relevant, just like with email.

]]> by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7673 Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:21:55 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7673 <p>MH: You're right, I didn't mean to say that these were MY ideas, or that they were necessarily NEW. Updated the post to reflect this.</p> <p>I have read The Humane Interface, it's one of my favourites. While I don't agree with all of Jef's opinions, it certainly makes you think.</p> MH:
You’re right, I didn’t mean to say that these were MY ideas, or that they were necessarily NEW. Updated the post to reflect this.

I have read The Humane Interface, it’s one of my favourites. While I don’t agree with all of Jef’s opinions, it certainly makes you think.

]]> by: e http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7672 Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:03:39 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7672 <p>I heartily agree with all of your points, but I'm not sure if #5 makes sense. Web applications certainly do care about being closed. Think of closing an instance of an AJAX editor (e.g. Gmail and Wordpress) before it's had a chance to save. Applications could mark themselves as clean or dirty and allow the OS to close them when they're clean, but that relies on the application being honest, and the user having the same notion of clean/dirty that it does (ie, when does a read-only RSS reader become dirty?). </p> <p>As to "feeling like a janitor", I'm not sure if that's something that can be avoided. The computer can't know what data important to the user at all times. It certainly can't tell if a chunk of data has been superseded, or is something you no longer care about. If you download a movie and watch it, then decide that you don't want to keep it (because it sucked), then <i>you</i> have to decide if it's time for that movie to go away. Similarly, if your tastes in music change, you have to put on your janitor's hat and delete the tracks you don't care about.</p> I heartily agree with all of your points, but I’m not sure if #5 makes sense. Web applications certainly do care about being closed. Think of closing an instance of an AJAX editor (e.g. Gmail and Wordpress) before it’s had a chance to save. Applications could mark themselves as clean or dirty and allow the OS to close them when they’re clean, but that relies on the application being honest, and the user having the same notion of clean/dirty that it does (ie, when does a read-only RSS reader become dirty?).

As to “feeling like a janitor”, I’m not sure if that’s something that can be avoided. The computer can’t know what data important to the user at all times. It certainly can’t tell if a chunk of data has been superseded, or is something you no longer care about. If you download a movie and watch it, then decide that you don’t want to keep it (because it sucked), then you have to decide if it’s time for that movie to go away. Similarly, if your tastes in music change, you have to put on your janitor’s hat and delete the tracks you don’t care about.

]]> by: MH http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7641 Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:47:21 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/12/31/5-ways-to-radically-change-computers-for-the-better/#comment-7641 <p>I think these ideas are great, but they're not new. I assume you've probably read Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface, which champions all of these ideas.</p> <p>Eliminating filenames and applications will require a significant paradigm shift for users. Like spinach, it is demonstrable that it's much better for them, but it will be hard to get them to let go of the old concepts...</p> I think these ideas are great, but they’re not new. I assume you’ve probably read Jef Raskin’s The Humane Interface, which champions all of these ideas.

Eliminating filenames and applications will require a significant paradigm shift for users. Like spinach, it is demonstrable that it’s much better for them, but it will be hard to get them to let go of the old concepts…

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