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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!enea!kth!osiris!pd@sics.se
From: pd@sics.se (Per Danielsson)
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: <2396@osiris.sics.se>
Date: 27 Dec 88 16:32:37 GMT
References: <3494@utastro.UUCP> <356@internal.Apple.COM>
Sender: pd@osiris.sics.se
Reply-To: pd@sics.se (Per Danielsson)
Followup-To: comp.windows.misc
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science
Lines: 34
In-reply-to: casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres)

In article <356@internal.Apple.COM>, casseres@Apple (David Casseres) writes:
>In article <3494@utastro.UUCP> rlr@utastro.UUCP (Randy Ricklefs) writes:
>
>>What about replacing the entire top of a desk with some type of flat display?
>>[...]
>
>I think it was Johan Strandberg who said years ago that the "right" size
>for the display is not "full-page" (uh, should it be legal size or metric?),
>nor "two-page," but the size of an opened-up newspaper, since that is the
>size that evolved as suitable for displaying multiple "windows" of inform-
>ation.

I agree about the size of the display, but only if it is to be used in
conjunction with other office equipment on an ordinary desk. Make it
larger and you have to move your head around to much.

>        Once you have that, he argued, you should build it into the top
>of your desk -- not because it's supposed to represent a desktop, but
>basically for ergonomic reasons and because once you have reached this
>Nirvana, you won't need the desktop space for anything else!

If you won't be using anything else but your computer you need a much
larger interface area than a newspaper size screen. A room with all of
the wall used as screens is then necessary, I think. Take a look at
the Media Room at MIT's Architecture Machine Group (if it still exists
it wold now be at the MIT Media Lab).

>David Casseres

PD
Per Danielsson		UUCP: pd@sics.se (or ...!enea!sics!pd)
Swedish Institute of Computer Science
PO Box 1263, S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN
"No wife, no horse, no moustache."