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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!elroy!cit-vax!remy
From: remy@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Remy Sanouillet)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor
Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments
Message-ID: <8951@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 21 Dec 88 22:58:48 GMT
References: <4362@pitt.UUCP> <257@gloom.UUCP>
Reply-To: remy@cit-vax.UUCP (Remy Sanouillet)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 70

In article <257@gloom.UUCP> cory@gloom.UUCP (Cory Kempf) writes:
[Previous article omitted.]
>
>About a year ago, there was an idea for networking the mac (actually, I think
>it was for a multiuser mac) that included the concept of a primative cyber-
>space.  It was based on the desktop metaphor of the mac.  
>
>The idea was to extend the desktop of the mac they way it is done with 
>multiple moniters on a mac II.  Give each user their own mouse/keyboard.
>If a user wanted, he could walk around the extended desktop with the mouse
>the same way that is done with Close View.  Also, the user could pass a window
>to someone else's desktop so that they could work on the application as well.
>
>Each user could of course customize their own desktop much the way that
>is done now.  
>
>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,
>an inbasket/outbasket, a filesystem, etc.  Each of the services that are 
>offered by the system are represented as an object in the office.  If you 
>go out through the door, you find yourself in the hall (network), and from 
>there can go into someone else's office (the outbasket & phone act in a 
>predictable manner).
>
>It'll be expensive (in terms of cpu time/bandwidth) but I think that it will
>be worth it in the long run.  The way that you interact with the computer
>in part determines the ways that you will consider using it.  (ex: desktop
>publishing out of the Mac)
>
>Comments?
>
>-- 
>Cory (...your bravest dreams, your worst nightmare...) Kempf
>UUCP: encore.com!gloom!cory
>	"...it's a mistake in the making."	-KT

This is basically the subject of my PhD dissertation. It extends
Fred Thompson's "New World of Computing (tm)" natural language system
to a host of networked users. Each user works in a "context", basically
his environment with his customized slang based on his native language,
(currently the system understands English, French and Italian but other
tongues are in the works.)

But the user can open up his context to the rest of the world using
several different methods. One is called "basing" and involves
incorporating another context (i.e. Dow Jones, Sears catalog) by
creating virtual links to it.

My role is allowing users to share their contexts which contain
data base objects in several different mediatic forms (entities,
texts, pictures, sound recordings, etc...) by opening up a common
window where each user retains his/her means of control. They each
have a cursor, mouse pointer or whatever pointing device their
computer supports, and a voice link is opened for direct communication.
This allows, for example, a team of designers scattered all over the
world to all lean over the same blueprint, give advice, make changes, 
querry the data base to find who is affected by the change, get them
in on the meeting and send the revised project to manufacturing.

If all goes well, my prototype should be working in a few months.
The way we see it, this is going to be the next mutation of the
telephone and computer into one standard device in every home.
Seing how the previous mutation (the Minitel in France) has
generated such a thrill in the general french user community,
there is little doubt that we are heading for some exciting days.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remy Sanouillet                      |      E-mail: remy@caltech.BITNET
256-80 Caltech                       |              remy@csvax.caltech.edu
Pasadena, CA 91125                   |              ...seismo!cit-vax!remy
Tel. (818) 356-6262                  |