Re: [9fans] GSOC: Drawterm for the iPhone

[Noah Evans <noah.evans@gmail.com>]

One of the principle reasons for the DS(and pending DSi port) was the
novel interfaces the system provided. While we can't hack on the
iPhone on an OS level directly(like we did with the DS) a drawterm
that conformed to Apple's guidelines could provide a novel interface
to experiment with new forms of input and ways of hooking into Plan 9.

If the iPhone drawterm:

1. made the typescript style of plan 9 accessible on a mobile device.
2. connected to a default public cpu server(like tip9ug)
3. was available for free in the app store

It would be a *great* way for new users to experiment with Plan 9 and
learn about what makes Plan 9 interesting.

Noah

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Uriel <uriel99@gmail.com> wrote:
> While 'experimenting with multitouch' is a worthwhile goal (although
> highly speculative, chording *and* text input are fundamnetal to the
> Plan 9 user interface, both of which seem really hard with
> multitouch); doing so by porting drawterm to the iPhone seems like an
> incredibly rounabout way to do so.
>
> Adding new input interfaces to inferno, 9vx or even p9p; would be
> infinitely simpler, and a much better long term platform for research
> (which would require much simpler setup).
>
> As for exporting devices, I ask again: what is the practical
> (including research) purpose of that?
>
> To me this whole project seems to be high-risk/low-reward, with
> worthwhile goals that could be much more easily accomplished with much
> less risk via other routes which don't share any of the technical and
> legal risks and would have much more potential to be useful in the
> future.
>
> Peace
>
> uriel
>
> On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:24 AM, André Günther <Andre.G@gmx.de> wrote:
>> I know it's difficult to argue with you, also because just about every email
>> of you is repeating the same stuff.
>>
>> Now the "VNC might suffice" objection is new and i want to reply to it.
>> Again I am repeating myself here, but obivously there's not other way
>> telling you:
>>
>> The only thing I personally see to make remote access on devices such as the
>> iPhone an useful and enjoyable experience is to work with the multitouch
>> capabilities. Thus providing an easy way for mouse chording and also certain
>> gesture support for managing the screen space (like zooming, maximizing a
>> certain window, scrolling etc.)
>> All these things are not possible with the VNC, because VNC doesn't know
>> about content, drawterm can.
>>
>> Another reason is the exporting device functionality drawterm provides,
>> again VNC can't give you that.
>>
>> In addition, you repeat the worthlessness of the project. Again look at the
>> past conversation and you find two basic points of view, your one renders
>> the effort useless. That doesn't make the other ones invalid.
>>
>> Even if you don't find anything remotely useful to the iPhone as a drawterm
>> device whatsoever... you still might find the following ones interesting,
>> which would be sideproducts of the process and available to every Plan 9
>> user:
>>        - gesture detection
>>        - a cpu bouncer
>>
>> And last but not least: You got the first opportunity to play with
>> moultitouch on Plan 9. I know this is part of "science" and "research" you
>> obviously don't like.
>> But here I want to keep the spirit alive that Plan 9 somehow made possible.
>> Plan 9 is and was a research project.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> André
>>
>>
>> On 31 Mar 2009, at 08:00, Uriel wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 6:57 AM, Tharaneedharan Vilwanathan
>>> <vdharani@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> hi,
>>>>
>>>> sorry if i have missed any prior discussion, but i would like to
>>>> mention that i am curious about this effort.
>>>>
>>>> to me, iphone (or similar device) seems to be an appropriate device
>>>> that is small enough  to be a portable drawterm device (eventually it
>>>> could become cheaper too). one can quickly connect it to a TV or a
>>>> hybrid monitor and get a bigger display.
>>>>
>>>> i have tried this before in iphone with acme running in my mac:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/12/modified-vnc-software-enables-remote-access-on-iphone/
>>>
>>> So, was acme usable with a touch screen as input? And does this mean
>>> that VNC clients already provide the desired functionality?
>>>
>>>> so in my opinion, this is a good effort.
>>>
>>> I'm not sure how that conclusion follows from the rest of your email.
>>> Can you clarify?
>>>
>>> Assuming that there are no overwhelming user interface issues (which
>>> seems like a huge assumption to me), what actual useful functionality
>>> would a drawterm port provide that vnc/ssh doesn't?
>>>
>>> I would remind people too that Google is going to *pay good money* for
>>> this work, so I think it is reasonable to ask how worthy it is.
>>>
>>> Peace
>>>
>>> uriel
>>
>>
>>
>
>