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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!welch
From: welch@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Arun Welch)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor
Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments
Message-ID: <29959@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 88 17:43:53 GMT
References: <4362@pitt.UUCP> <257@gloom.UUCP> <82702@sun.uucp> <12417@garnet.BBN.COM>
Organization: Ohio State Computer & Info Science
Lines: 42

In article <12417@garnet.BBN.COM>, mlandau@bbn.com (Matt Landau) writes:
> In comp.windows.misc, landman@sun.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) writes:
> >In article <257@gloom.UUCP> cory@gloom.UUCP (Cory Kempf) writes:
> >>What I would like to see is the desktop metaphor extended into 3D, say
> >>for example, an office.  You would have a desktop, a trashcan, a phone. . .
> >
> >Yes, but if I'm alternately working in my office and someone else's far away,
> >I want to be able to switch back and forth quickly.  How about teleport
> >booths instead of hallways?
> 
> This is beginning to sound in some ways like a network-distributed version
> of Rooms, the new "desktop thing" from ParcPlace.
> 
> If you haven't seen/heard of Rooms, you should look into it.  It presents 
> you with multiple workspaces, called rooms, each of which contains the set 
> of tools commonly used for doing some job (i.e., a collection of windows 
> and programs).  There are doors for going from room to room, bags in which 
> you can carry things from one room into another, and pockets in which you
> can put things that you want to follow you around (like a clock, or your
> phone) as you move from room to room.
> --

I haven't seen the ParcPlace implementation, but the Envos
implementation for their Lisp environment is pretty spiff (which is
actually the original).  The article describing it can be found in CHI
86, by Austin Henderson and Stuart Card.  Interestingly enough, I'm in
my "Telnet" room as I write this...  The Envos implementation extends
the metaphor by allowing you to include any room in any other, not
just the Pockets.  This allows you to do things like have a
Control-Panel room, which you include in every room, and use your
Pockets for just carrying things between rooms.  Henderson and Card
implemented it originally in Interlisp, and for efficiency reasons
Envos re-implemented it (once upon a time, you could go get a cup of
coffee while it switched rooms, if you were fast and your rooms were
busy), enhancing it considerably along the way.  I believe it's still
an ongoing resarch project at Parc, however.  Incidentally, it makes a
pretty useful slide-show system too, for demos.  You just have each
room be a different slide, describing how your system has changed as
it goes along....:-).  I've been using the new Rooms for about 6
months now, and really love it. 

...arun