Re: The State Of The Art

[Adam Moyes <adam macfar demon co uk>]

Dr Geek wrote:
> 
> Adam Moyes <adam@macfar.demon.co.uk> skribis:
> >But the problem is finding these links. A hirearchical approach is not
> >always
> >appropriate (what should be a parent of what is not always immediately
> >obvious),
> >and there is only limited space on the desktop (and its flat).
> Take a look at Natrificial's Brain (http://www.natrificial.com/) for an
> alternative system that lets you work with files and weblinks depending on
> how they're related, not where they are in the filesystem.  Unfortunately
> it's only for Windows, but there's at least one OSS clone in development
> (one's called Synapse and there's another one for KDE called something like
> Kognition that was proposed a while back; some worries about patents on that
> one I think).
> 
Very interesting. But a bit hackey, the abstract representation is good, but
the interface not as intuative as I would like. I'll check out the OSS
versions.

> >I havn't quite figured it out, but how about something less linear, a more
> >abstract representation of information _integrated_ into the desktop?
> A Brain-type app running on the root window - that would be very nice
> indeed.
> 
Yeah, I've got some ideas for that too, but let's stick to your initial
suggestion first, to keep our focus.

I was thinking that the power of your suggestion lies in the simple
representation of an extra dimension (I would like to see the third
dimension accessable, but it's the physical interface that has limitations
there, I find a joystick terrible for anything other than indicating
direction). To make it intuative the sliding has to be beleivable,
what about looking at the _outside_ of a sphere, with ghosts of the other
windows that are on the other side of the sphere moving behind the ones
you are looking at.

Graphicaly intensive yes, but these are just ideas, if you don't have the
hardware, switch it off.

And maybee middle clicking or something will allow you to move in towards
the centre of the sphere where your your information links are held
in something like ``the brain''s but in 3D, and when you've chosen
something you spring back to the surface and the link is serviced by
an app where you were.

Wow, that sounds linke fun!

Adam.
-- 
Hofstadter's Law:
        It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take
Hofstadter's Law into account.