Let's Dream A Little

What Are We Talking about Here?

Well, we are taking about future of computing :) Not in terms of number of CPUs, storage sizes and transfer speeds. All this is very important, but at the end of the day it's machinery that is supposed to serve a human being. I think it's pretty clear at this point human time and energy are the most precious resources.

The traditional desktop interfaces were definitely a breakthrough in their time but now they are stagnant. The paradigm hasn't changed in long time.

So What Do We Have Now?

On one hand here is me, a human being. I have five senses; I interact with my incredibly complex environment in subtle ways. I have two hands with opposable thumbs, I have depth perception, I know how a window differs from a shoe. I can drive a stick shift truck in Manhattan while talking to my wife on the phone and drinking coffee (kids, don't try that at home :)), ski down a hill in British Columbia avoiding trees, slow skiers and patches of ice, fly a plane, conduct group therapy sessions with people I hardly know and handle weightlessness on a space station. Well at this point you’re saying: "no way he can do all that" :) and you are correct. However, I can do most of these things and I am only an average guy.

On the other hand here's a computer. It has a mouse. Mouse has buttons. There are more buttons on the keyboard. There's this flat screen and something we proudly call a desktop which is basically a collection of hotspots with small uninformative images. I point and click all day long. I enter text on this glorified typewriter, that, oh boy, can spell check. I send emails on this glorified fax machine; I watch movies on this glorified TV. So what is it? Well, a typewriter, fax machine and a TV that responds to finger tapping, which I basically tap for living 40 hours a week or more. Oh joy.

Why, Oh God, Why?

Well, in my mind it's because techies did it. These guys who know what a byte is and what a file allocation table is. And being what they are, they arrived at something that actually works. Probably by a random process and occasional and random flickers of non-techiness :).

Still. How many of you tried hooking up your grandmother with a computer? Tough, huh? :)

Where Do We Go From Here?

Clearly it's time for new ideas. And not industry centric ideas, such as Eclipse paltform or Linux or whatever. Human centric ideas.
So, how do we do that. By looking at things we already know. Look around you right now. What do you see? I will tell you what I see.

A Desk.

That’s what Anand and team is bulding on and from what I am seeing they are doing a great work at it, so I am going to leave that to them :)

Rooms.

Unless you're outside you are in a room. And there are more rooms. This room you're in I likely called an office. You work there most likely :) What are other rooms are there? I can see that going several directions:
- There are more officess and other people use them for work. Most likely I am communicating with them often.
- I am at home. There is another room where I sleep and another one where I cook. Also there's a room where I shower and...ok let's stop here :)

Car.

While I type this I can see my Honda out of my office window. Somehow I feel that it is relevant to the subject. What do I typically do with a car? I go places. I drive down the nearest plaza and here I am facing storefronts. Some close, some far. I drive around the parking lot for a minute and I see more storefronts. Ah, dry cleaners, groceries, bank. Basically more specialized rooms and all I have to do is press the brake pedal when I pass by a store I am interested in. I also have to park, but that's a mere limitation of the physical world, so it doesn't count :)

TV

Just a TV in my living room. Flat-screen 40 inches, shows a number of channels. Nothing to it, right? Well, not so fast. Say, I want to know what's the weather like and if that snowstorm they talk about before is still coming. So, I switch to CP24 and watch for a while. I am just sitting on the couch, probably drinking cofee. In that time I get the forecast that is displayed in a section of a screen, in a different section of the screen I see traffic conditions cycling though major intersections. Also I am probably hearing an interview where people complain about gas prices. And all I had to do is take a few steps to the living room.

So these just a few things I was around me. Now, I want to try and perhaps learn something from those things.

It's Not That Hard, I Already Know Now to Use my Enviroment

Did I ever have to learn how to walk around my house? Not really. Is it that hard to know where to walk? Not really. Even if It was a brand new house this process would take me 15 minutes tops, unless it's Winsor Castle :) If I need to talk to my co-worker I walk mindlessly down the coridor until I see his or her face or a plate on the door.

My Enviroment is Active

Sunlight from a window in my office let's me know what time of day it is. I don't have to ask my window for that information. TV in my living room pours daily news and local conditions at me without me having to ask for all the bits and pieces of information. My car goes past storefronts on it's own, I don't pedal the scroll wheel on my mouse for that. I just wait and look around.

My Enviroment is 3-D. No kidding :)

My Environment is Task Oriented.

I usually cook (well, my wife does it :)) in the kithchen and sel in the bedroom.

Now, How Would I do it With My Computer?

Ok, let's see.

Talking to a coworker. Well, using Skype most likely. First off, at one point of my life I had to learn what Skype is and surely if it's a brand new machine I have to download it, install it, register, adjust my sound levels, ask for authorisation....Any of these actions would make sense to your grandmother? :)
So, I got everything lined up and now I want to call Bob about that thing we need to discuss. Bob is having early lunch in the kithcen next door. Skype shows he's away. All I can do leave a chat message. The fact that he's just down the hall and would see him as I walk past the kitchen door makes no difference and I am totally unaware of Bob's whereabouts.

Weather. Ok, I go to CP24 website. It loads and just sits there. Well, luckily it may have weather and traffic on the front page. But it's static and I have to think "Hmm what else I might want to know?". Ok, say gas prices. Look hard, buddy it's there somewhere....Ah, it's here in the corner. Click. Am I comofrtable ? Hardly. Did I just spend a minute actively hunting for that link? Sure did. Did I drink cofee while doing that? Couple of sips, sure, but that time was deducted from my looking for that god-damn link time. The coffee is hot, I wanna look at it when I drink it :)

Bummer...what if I only wanted to know what's wather is like now? Looking though that window would be a good idea :)

Are We Really in That Bad A Shape with Computer Iterfaces?

Well, not really. We deal with 3d life like environemnts already and we are experimenting with specialized workspaces. But as ususal, it's done in compartmentalized fasion in totally different parts of the industry.

Task Orientation

A traditional, one size fits all, desktop sucks. It's really crude. However, speaking in Practical terms, the notion of task specific linterfaces is progressing. Eclipse platform is doing that, they have a notion of perspective. Each perspective is task specific and defines the visual layout of your interface. It brings up things that you likely need. Say Java Perspective shows you your packages and other java things. Team Syncronizing shows you code repositries and so on, Debug has call stack and shows you your variable values.

An Mylyn add-on to Eclipse (they call those plug-ins) extends the notion of a task and deals not just with general task types like persrectives do, but with actual individual tasks that you define. They will preserve your working space for a task and when you switch between tasks they will restore the context so all documents you worked with are restored.

3D Spaces

I can't recall now, how long ago I played a first-person shooter game for the first time. Probably in 94, it wasn't even Doom, something much cruder. It was amazingly easy to learn and fun.

Now, Le Me Dream A Little

Enxtensibility

Ok. BumpTop adresses the desktop metaphor well. But it really has to go futher I think. Perhaps going along the lines of Eclipse and enchancing those.

BumpTop as a common starting point is proabably good. But what if I wan't a custom tailored enviroment for say...composing music? I.e. I need a specialized room that has various musical instruments hanging on the walls and, I dunno, a preconfigured shelf with classical albums on it.

Eclipse community shows is if there is free, no-nonsense open environemnt people will extend it. Eclipse is gaining momentum because of that and not just in Java world.

Environment Basics

I think we need to make the enviroment more proactive. Well, I know, it's easier said then done, but we should try. Say, why not to build a virtual train that moves you though your Google search results. It can move you steadily though a road with pages as billboards on sides. You would be able to adjust the speed, but other than that you would just sit there and relax until a page grabs your attention. You may not have to read the contents even, maybe a familiar layout or banner graphics will help your selection process.

So, how's that for a rant? :)

Yury