Re: [9fans] UI design | enhancements.

[Darren Wise <darren@wisecorp.co.uk>]

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Heya folks,

Thanks very much for the replies so far, I'm still reading them as they
come in and when the flutter has calmed down a little I'll then start to
reply. I'm just letting you know I am listening and reading and not
being ignorant firing off some random eMail and then doing-one elsewhere :D

Some very high quality responses so far, good giggles as well! Awesome
insights considering my level of Plan9 usage and knowledge at this stage.

Awesome stuff!

On 15/04/2019 16:10, Chris McGee wrote:
>
> Hi Darren,
>
> Your goal seem to be to make the system less daunting for new users. I
> think there are a number of ways to accomplish this.
>
> Dressing up the UI and/or making it more like popular used interfaces
> might be one way to make new users feel more comfortable. One concern
> with doing this is that it allows them to come with other assumptions
> that may confusions about how the underlying system works. This effort
> could also increase complexity and size of the core system.
> Simplicity, size and consistency are aspects of Plan 9 that I really
> value. Otherwise, I might as well just use BSD or even Linux.
>
> In my experience one of the biggest hurdles to getting curious new
> users to give Plan 9 a try is just getting access to a namespace so
> that they can give it a try and learn. I think that the quickest path
> at the moment is to install it onto a VM like qemu (or yuck,
> virtualbox) since you can bypass the whole hardware selection and
> compatibility pain points. I put some YouTube videos up showing people
> step-by-step with a decent number of views and comments, so I think
> this helped some people just to get their hands on it. There are more
> ideas that I'm playing with to help people get started, such as
> building a website where you can get a drawterm in your web browser
> and give it a try.
>
> Once a new user has access to the system there could be some exercises
> and tutorials to engage them. There could be a variety of these
> depending on the background, whether programmer, Linux user,
> librarian, whatever. The key in my opinion is to not hide the core
> system with layer after layer of "pretty" GUI's, but instead reveal it
> gradually with decent explanations. I think that the core of Plan 9 is
> much easier to explain than other systems because of its smaller size,
> relatively consistent interfaces and versatility. Once you grasp one
> area it is much easier to begin grasping more of it using the skills
> you already have. I can't say the same thing about Linux or any other
> system that I have used. Like any tool, there is some required
> learning and practice. Good tools amplify your learning as you
> practice with it.
>
> Once someone understands how Plan 9 works then I think they will have
> many of the tools that they need to build their own networks with it.
> I recommend digging into man pages and /sys/doc at this stage. There's
> a wealth of well written guides in there, although some could be made
> a bit more current. A guide on how to build a home network using
> raspberry pi terminals and a CPU/file server from easy to acquire, but
> well designed, modern hardware would be a welcome addition.
>
> The system is far from perfect as others will tell you but there's
> advances and fixes happening steadily. I'm just not sure if focusing
> on the initial user experience through UI look and feel is adding
> much. I think a more general discussion of GUI capabilities, such as
> video and 3D graphics capabilities, would be great, but more in the
> context of what kinds of tasks people want to accomplish. The trick is
> to fit those improvements into the rest of the system and not just
> jamming them in.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
--
WISECORP <https://wisecorp.co.uk>
Darren Wise
eMail: darren@wisecorp.co.uk <mailto:darren@wisecorp.co.uk>
www: https://wisecorp.co.uk

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