From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: <8126F5C4-87DF-4EB8-9470-FACCB5B1BEAF@gmx.de> <3aaafc130903292046v36a30813q8cdf93e006ffa632@mail.gmail.com> <509071940903300708r6c477fb2he6ed869f0ba57650@mail.gmail.com> <5d375e920903302126u7d5fcdd0nc16ebf9745fad018@mail.gmail.com> <6e35c0620903302136y683a8de6kff4a72ae490c4ef9@mail.gmail.com> <5d375e920903302300v4c5c4da4g32ec1e4af0648390@mail.gmail.com> <7970D693-EB2A-4B25-8B27-8759A33E5A30@gmail.com> <3aaafc130903310736y14125bc2j66d99b3eaaf7cdf@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:02:32 -0400 Message-ID: <3aaafc130903310802x20063d28j10b9000caeeadf43@mail.gmail.com> From: "J.R. Mauro" To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Re: [9fans] GSOC: Drawterm for the iPhone Topicbox-Message-UUID: ce487474-ead4-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Eric Van Hensbergen wr= ote: > On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 9:36 AM, J.R. Mauro wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:01 AM, Eric Van Hensbergen = wrote: >>> The fact that rio and/or acme have a limited usage model with such a de= vice >>> and/or multitouch in general is a shame -- wouldn't it be nice to fix t= hat. >> >> This is a very good point. As much as I like rio, I can't help but be >> aggravated by it sometimes, and it would be nice to have someone take >> a fresh look at interacting with it and possibly solve some of the >> shortcomings. >> > > I think the key here is devices like the iPhone beg a different model > -- rio and ACME were developed for graphical, mouse/keyboard setups > (with relatively large screens I might add) -- smaller devices or > devices with different models (like set top boxes or game consoles) > really require a different set of tools/apps. =A0I think this is one of > the things that was interesting about the Plan B approach -- different > front-ends for similar back ends. =A0I doubt anyone wants to use the > iphone as a developer workstation, but it might be nice to make it an > additional screen for faces, or as the student points out and > additional user-interface to someone's work environment. > > As far as fixing rio and ACME, I would urge anyone looking at that to > come up with a complementary solution as opposed to messing with the > existing model. =A0I don't see any reason why alternative interfaces > can't co-exist which support keyboard-only interaction (ron's smackme > comes to mind as well as wmii's model) as well as multitouch on > laptops (actually the iphone's new cut/paste model might work for > multitouch trackpads -- and while not as natural as the existing > chording method might make ACME useable when one finds oneself without > a three button mouse handy). =A0Another avenue to pursue is looking at > using gestures to replace chords -- it seems like pinch and expand > might be natural replacements for cut and paste. =A0I don't think the > community or the system benefits form limiting our options (but lets > keep them options -- I still prefer chording when possible ;) > > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0-eric > Yes, that's sane. The interaction model depends very much on context, and there is no one-size-fits-all interaction model. Being able to switch models on the fly would also be nice.