Xref: utzoo comp.windows.misc:791 comp.sys.next:971 comp.sys.mac:24301
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!apple!casseres
From: casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres)
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: <356@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 22 Dec 88 19:35:40 GMT
References: <3494@utastro.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 17

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?
>Then add a touch-screen mechanism to drag papers, forms, etc. across the desk
>top to work on them.  (Then your electronic desktop could become as cluttered
>as the physical one. :-) )

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.  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!

David Casseres