leenoble said:
I didn't think the Sun demo went nearly far enough. Things may have changed in more recent builds but from the demo I saw I remember a desertscape rocky background picture right?
...
However, coming back to that desktop. What would be really cool is if you could place icons and windows in the distance, behind that rocky outcrop just to the left of the cactus. Because we remember things spatially, even if the icon was infinitessimally small it wouldn't matter because we would be more likely to remember where we put it. We could keep things strewn about our 3d landscape desktops and still know where things were. Much more could be stored this way.
Think about it like this. Imagine you're looking for your cheesegrater. In front of you you have a dozen shelves each with a dozen objects on of roughly equal size. There's your cheesegrater, a shoe, a telephone, a cuddly toy etc etc.
Picking out your chessegrater isn't too difficult when you only have a few items to choose from but the more items you have the harder your task becomes as you have to scan all the roughly equally sized objects.
Now forget the grid like shelf structure.
Where's your cheesegrater?
Second cupboard on the right in the kitchen, bottom shelf behind the plates.
Easy!
I think Sun dropped the ball with that one and someone needs to pick it up and place it in the foreground.
I dunno about this whole spatial thing. I think it just muddles computers as a concept, and makes them "harder" to use. I don't know about you, but I think the spatial world sucks ass, and I am constantly losing things.
Now, let me explain my overly crass statement more thoughtfully: I am constantly walking around annoyed that the 'spatial' world is sooo limited. What if, using your example, I am out walking in the park, and decide to stop at the store and buy some cheese and, there, out in the middle of the world, I decide. "Man, I'd really like to grate some cheese..."
Now my cheese grater, as you correctly pointed out, is back at my apartment, in the kitchen, in the cupboard behind the plates. How is this helpful to me when I am in the park? Then I have to walk back to my apartment, up the stairs...etc. and so on.
What I want instead is a computer that drops the whole spatial metaphor, and allows me to cross-reference things with my own categories (OK...here is a javascript snippet I wrote...it is part of my "code samples" group, and part of my "ACME Corporation Web site" group. Then, I'd like to computer to keep track of what I am working on..."Oh, he's working on that other ACME Corporation Web site document...I'll add his JS sample to the "possible related items" list.
In short, the computer ought to be able to say "Aha! He has some cheese. Perhaps he'll need a cheese grater, or a cheese slicer, or a cracker..." Well, you get the idea.
This interface need not be in 3D.
I say all this, because I have trained people to use computers, and "folders" are the hardest thing for them to pick up, as far as I can tell. They are like "what is a 'folder'?", and they never know "where" they put anything. I think this is because they don't expect something that is inherently non-spatial to behave as spatial.
