[9fans] acme: some thoughts about design

[9fans] acme: some thoughts about design

[cej]

Hi, there!

First... I love Acme's design: chording, no-menus, etc... Nothing pops up, or falls at me, etc,etc...

The thing I don't like [very much] is taglines [as a place for commands]:
they waste screen space, show redundant info (same commands all the time)
couldn't we have a *single* command 'window'[==acme's frame, not rio window]
which would behave much like tagline: show current window's tag plus list of predefined/pasted commands
this would save space on screen, and [IMHO] would bemore elegant solution.
Another frame with [sorted] listing of window tags could ease navigation...

would love also to have acme as an optional universal glue for programs,
eg., Edit functions could move outside to [something like a commandline]Sam (enhanced sed) that would 
then use Acme's frame to display files...

Just a prick in a wasp's nest, I feel, but I would love 
to hear from you, even if [especially if] I missed the point! Don't shoot me.

No need to say that implementation is far, far beyond my skills :-(((


Sincerely yours,
++pac.

Re: [9fans] acme: some thoughts about design

[Matthias Teege]

> The thing I don't like [very much] is taglines [as a place for commands]:
> they waste screen space, show redundant info (same commands all the time)
> couldn't we have a *single* command 'window'[==acme's frame, not rio window]

A "command window" introduce a mode. It's better If you can
input a command in any place and execute it with a "execute key" like
acme does.

Matthias

Re: Re: [9fans] acme: some thoughts about design

[Russ Cox]

> > The thing I don't like [very much] is taglines [as a place for commands]:

if you don't want to use the taglines for commands, don't.

the taglines are necessary -- how else would you know
which file was which?  putting extra stuff in them that can
be ignored seems like an efficient use of space, not a waste.

Re: Re: [9fans] acme: some thoughts about design

[Matthias Teege]

On Sat May 29 15:09:51 GMT 2004, russcox@gmail.com wrote:
> the taglines are necessary -- how else would you know
> which file was which?  putting extra stuff in them that can

Don't use files ;-) It is a computer task to save my input but
I dont understand why I must tell the computer where to store.

If I have a usefull search interface I didnt need any filename or
directory structure. A user isn't interessted in filesystems.

Matthias

Re: Re: [9fans] acme: some thoughts about design

[9nut]

> Don't use files ;-) It is a computer task to save my input but
> I dont understand why I must tell the computer where to store.

Obviously a failure of vision on Rob's part!  ☺

It is an interesting thought that has come up before in various
contexts (look at the discussion about annotated filesystem in the
archives) but I don't see how this applies to Acme tags.

Put (was: [9fans] acme: some thoughts about design)

[FODEMESI Gergely]

On Sat, 29 May 2004 9nut@9netics.com wrote:

> > Don't use files ;-) It is a computer task to save my input but
> > I dont understand why I must tell the computer where to store.

Even in 1997 I met people who thought, that a user should not be obliged
to know when, where and what to save or that the concept of saving should
exist at all. (A real visionary might have thought about this probably
decades ago.)

> Obviously a failure of vision on Rob's part!

Put might have come from an idea like above (ie. "save" is not the best
way to express the real need), or it was just shorter than "Save".

 gergo